Name: Raised Ham Pie
Ingredients: 1 small ham; 1 pint Madeira or sherry; veal stock (enough to cover the ham); seasoning (pepper and salt); crust for pie

Why it works: Ham and sherry work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Raised Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the ham for 4-5 hours, then wash and scrape it well.
Cut off the knuckle and boil the ham for 30 minutes.
Trim the ham neatly and remove the rind.
Place the ham in a stew-pan with Madeira and enough veal stock to cover it.
Let it stew for 2 hours or until three-quarters done.
Remove the ham and let it cool.
Prepare a pie crust large enough to hold the ham.
Place the ham in the crust and surround it with veal forcemeat.
Cover and decorate the pie as desired.

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.

Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

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