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To Braise a Ham

A ham braised with beef, onions, herbs, carrots, and allspice, served on a vegetable puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Braise a Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in water overnight.

  2. Wash the ham in warm water and trim away all yellow fat and rusty parts. Remove the knuckle and pare down the underside of the ham.

Braise

  1. Place the ham in a stewpan and cover it with water.

  2. Add the beef, onions, sweet herbs, carrots, and allspice.

  3. Simmer for 3 to 6 hours, depending on the size and weight of the ham.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ham, skin it, glaze it, and serve it on a puree of vegetables.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut that is softened and flavoured slowly by the long simmer.
Beef
Adds meaty savour to the cooking liquid that flavours the ham.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and the vegetable puree.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aroma to the braising liquid.
Sweet herbs
Add aromatic flavour to the braising liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmering time. Simmer gently rather than boil hard, so the ham cooks through and becomes tender without the meat toughening or falling apart. Adjust the time to the ham's size and weight, since larger hams need the longer end of the range.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, thyme, parsley, carrot, allspice):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, thyme, parsley, carrot, allspice. 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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