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Ham Force-meat

A baked ham loaf made with breadcrumbs, mustard, milk, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham Force-meat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped ham, stale bread crumbs, parsley, mustard, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and egg yolks.

  3. Pour the milk mixture into the ham mixture and stir until well combined.

  4. Season with cayenne pepper to taste.

Bake

  1. Cook the mixture in a greased dish in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the loaf a tender, sliceable body.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the loaf from drying out as it bakes.
Cold boiled ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and meaty structure of the loaf.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so the loaf firms up as it sets. Pulling it out too early leaves it wet and loose, while overbaking dries it and makes it crumbly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, parsley, milk, egg, 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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