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Ham a LA Minute

Sautéed ham slices cooked with wine, mushrooms, brown sauce, and glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Ham a LA Minute

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the raw ham into slices.

  2. Fry the slices in butter in a sauté pan over high heat until nicely browned.

  3. Pour off the fat.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the marsala or sherry wine, cayenne pepper, and chopped mushrooms.

  2. Cook quickly for a few minutes.

  3. Add the brown sauce and liquid meat glaze, then reheat.

Serve

  1. Dish up, garnish with small mushroom heads, and serve.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw ham
Browns in butter to develop savoury flavour on the surface of the slices.
Butter
Conducts high heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the ham.
Marsala or sherry wine
Deglazes the pan and adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Finely chopped mushrooms
Soften in the wine and contribute earthy flavour and body to the sauce.
Brown sauce
Adds depth, colour and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the ham over high heat until nicely browned. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot, dry surface. Crowding the pan or leaving the slices wet from moisture will steam them, giving pale, less flavourful meat.

“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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