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A Ham

A ham rolled with tongue, seasoned with salt, mace, and cayenne, then boiled or stewed in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the ham through the thick part of the flesh down to the bone.

  2. Slice the ham thinly and evenly without separating the fat from the lean.

  3. Leave a portion of the rind on at the knuckle and trim it into scallops or points.

  4. Boil the ham for 30 minutes and allow it to cool slightly.

Roll and tie

  1. Sprinkle the inside with a mixture of salt, mace, and cayenne.

  2. Place the tongue on the ham and roll it up tightly.

  3. Secure the roll with a skewer and bind it tightly with tape.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil or stew the ham in stock or strong broth for about 2 hours until tender.

  2. Serve with rich brown gravy or sauces of your choice.

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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  3. Ham + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,050 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 of the roll and provides the meat that becomes tender during simmering.
Tongue
Adds rich, tender meat and fat that enrich the filling as it cooks inside the roll.
Stock or strong broth
Simmers the roll gently, adding savory flavor and moisture as the meat tenderizes.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the filling and helps draw out flavor from the meat.

The step that matters

Boil the ham for 30 minutes and allow it to cool slightly. Cooking the ham partly before rolling sets its outer proteins, so the roll holds its shape. Cooling slightly makes it easier to handle and tie tightly without the meat tearing or the filling spilling out.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, 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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