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To Mince Ham

A dish of finely minced ham simmered in veal stock and cream, served over fried toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Mince Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Mince the ham very fine.

Make the ham mixture

  1. In a stewpan, combine the minced ham, veal stock, cream, powdered mace, and Cayenne.

Fry the toast and serve

  1. Cut a slice of bread to fit the dish and fry it in butter until light brown.

  2. Place the fried toast on a dish and pour the ham mixture over it.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main savoury body and meaty flavour of the topping.
Veal stock
Adds savoury depth and moisture, helping the ham mixture stay spreadable and juicy.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the ham mixture.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavour to the ham mixture.
Bread
Forms the crisp, browned base that holds the ham mixture.
Butter
Fat for frying the bread, adding flavour and promoting browning.

The step that matters

Frying the bread until light brown. Frying in butter browns the bread through the Maillard reaction, giving flavour and a sturdy base. Stopping at light brown keeps it from drying out or turning bitter, while still holding up under the moist topping.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, cream, bread, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, cream, bread, butter. 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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