Why it works: Ham and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,159 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Country Ham Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Set aside the liquid from cooking the ham.
Use enough ham liquid for the soup.
Add thickening to the liquid and stir well.
Incorporate sour cream and bring to a boil.
Serve with roasted roll squares.
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.
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Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,159 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,827 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, cream):
- Onionthe original
- Mustardfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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