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Pounding Ham

Pound ham with butter and spices until it becomes a single lump or morsel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pounding Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Pound the ham

  1. Pound the ham until it is a single lump or a morsel of unbroken fiber.

  2. If the ham is not very dry, pound it before adding butter.

Blend the flavors

  1. Mix in the butter and continue to beat until well blended and mellow in flavor.

  2. Add spices according to the type of meat used.

Chill

  1. Ensure the ham is fresh and place it in a cool place immediately after pounding.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body, and its fibers give the paste its structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the texture and softening the flavor.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate aroma.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, sweet aroma.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a gentle, sharp heat.
White pepper
Adds mild heat with a subtle, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Pound the ham before adding butter when it is not very dry. Pounding breaks the meat into a fine, unbroken fiber so it can absorb the fat evenly. Adding butter to coarse, dry meat can leave the mixture greasy and grainy rather than smooth and well blended.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, mace, nutmeg, pepper, white pepper):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, mace, nutmeg, pepper, white pepper. 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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