Name: To Dress Hams
Ingredients: 1 ham; water; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); raspings; carrot

Why it works: Ham and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,918 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Dress Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

Soak the ham in water overnight.
Mellow the ham for 2-3 days in a hole in the earth or on damp stones.
Wash the ham thoroughly.

Cook the ham

Simmer the ham in a boiler with plenty of water for 4-6 hours, depending on size.
Cover the cooked ham with a clean cloth to keep it hot over boiling water.

Finish and serve

Remove the skin and sprinkle raspings over the ham.
Garnish with carrot.
Preserve the skin to cover the ham when cold to prevent drying.

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 + carrottop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

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

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 dish, carrying the flavour and texture of the meat.
Raspings: Sprinkled over the ham to add a crumbed, crisp coating on the surface.
Coarse sea salt: Seasons and preserves the ham through soaking and mellowing.

“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.