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Essence of Ham

A stew of ham with carrots, parsnips, onions, veal gravy, mushrooms, truffles, morels, cloves, basil, parsley, bread crust, and leek.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Essence of Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the ham into pieces about 1 inch thick.

Make the stew

  1. Place the ham in a saucepan with the sliced carrots, parsnips, and onions.

  2. Stew until they stick to the pan but do not burn.

  3. Gradually add strong veal gravy.

  4. Add mushrooms, truffles, morels, cloves, basil, parsley, a crust of bread, and a leek.

  5. Cover and simmer until thick and flavorful, then strain.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they stew, adding depth to the base.
Strong veal gravy
Adds body and rich savory flavor as the liquid that thickens the stew.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they cook down.
Parsnips
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they cook down.

The step that matters

Stewing the vegetables until they stick. The vegetables should caramelize lightly on the pan without burning. Light browning builds savory depth, while burnt bits taste bitter and can spoil the whole stew.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, onion, veal, mushroom, truffle, clove):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, veal, mushroom, truffle, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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