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Ham, Roast, Cold

Cold roast ham glazed with aspic, served with watercress and salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,759 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham, Roast, Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ham

  1. Cook the ham as directed for Ham, Roast a la Crawshawe, using only half the quantity of wine for basting.

  2. Remove any excess fat and smooth the surface of the ham.

  3. Set the ham aside to cool.

Glaze and set

  1. Lightly glaze the ham.

  2. Pour pale pink aspic over the glazed ham.

  3. Let the aspic firm up.

  4. Trim the edges of the ham.

Decorate and serve

  1. Place the ham on a clean dish.

  2. Surround the ham with dressed watercress.

  3. Garnish with pink and yellow aspic in fancy blocks and small whole tomatoes.

  4. Add a frill around the knuckle of the ham.

  5. Decorate the top of the ham with Ham Butter and Egg Butter.

  6. Serve with a nice salad, preferably a fruit salad.

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. Wine + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

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

  2. Watercress + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish, and its fat and surface are trimmed and smoothed before glazing.
Wine
Used for basting during roasting, adding moisture and flavour to the outside of the ham.
Pale pink aspic
Sets into a clear jelly layer over the glazed ham, giving a smooth, glossy coat.

The step that matters

Let the aspic firm up. Pouring the next layer or handling the ham before the aspic has set can smear or break the coating. Aspic is gelatin-based and needs to chill and firm fully to hold a clean, glossy surface.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, wine, watercress, butter, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, wine, watercress, butter, egg. 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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