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Ham Sauce

A sauce made by mashing ham meat and bone with gravy, herbs, and pepper, then simmering and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Remove all meat from the ham bone, discarding any rusty parts.

  2. Mash the meat and bone together using a rolling pin.

Make the sauce

  1. Place the mash in a saucepan with 3 tablespoons of gravy.

  2. Set the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly to prevent sticking.

  3. After some time, add a small bundle of sweet herbs, pepper, and ½ pint of beef gravy.

  4. Cover and let it stew over gentle heat until it has a good flavor of the herbs.

  5. Strain off the gravy before serving.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

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

  3. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

  4. Ham + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

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

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Meat from a ham
Provides the main savory flavor of the sauce as it stews in the gravy.
Bone from a ham
Releases flavor and body into the gravy during slow, gentle stewing.
Beef gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying flavor and adding moisture.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat at the start. Mashed meat and bone stick and scorch easily in a saucepan. Constant stirring over low heat spreads heat evenly and keeps the sauce from burning before it stews.

“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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