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Modern Cookery

A savory stew of lean ham, butter, aromatics, and stock, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove fat, rind, and smoked edges from the ham, then cut the ham into quarter-inch slices and dice.

  2. Peel and slice the shallots or onion.

Make the stew

  1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the ham, shallots or onion, cloves, mace, peppercorns, thyme, parsley, lemon thyme, winter savory, and lemon rind.

  3. Stew gently for nearly an hour, shaking the pan frequently.

  4. Sprinkle in the flour gradually, mixing well.

  5. After a few minutes, gradually add the boiling stock while shaking the pan.

  6. Once 2 to 3 pints are added, pour in the remaining stock and let it simmer gently for an hour.

Strain

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large pan.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, meaty flavour of the stew.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and seasonings, adding richness and helping flavours spread through the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stock as it cooks, giving the stew a smooth, body-rich texture.
Shallots or onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as they soften slowly in the butter.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew and carries its flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and stock gradually. Flour clumps if dropped in at once, and cold or unevenly added liquid can leave lumps. Sprinkling the flour and adding the stock slowly while shaking or stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, shallot, clove, thyme, parsley, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, shallot, clove, thyme, parsley, lemon. 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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