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Ham, to Roast

A ham roasted with wine, broth, vinegar, onions, spices, and butter, then served with a spiced jus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,294 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Ham, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Tie or sew the ham in a coarse cloth and bury it 3-4 feet underground for 3-4 days.

  2. Wash the ham in warm water, pare it, and scrape the rind.

  3. Spit the ham and lay it down to roast.

Make the liquor

  1. In a broad stewpan, combine white wine, broth, vinegar, onions, mace, cloves, pepper, bay leaves, basil, and thyme; bring to a boil.

Roast and serve

  1. Set the liquor under the ham and baste frequently.

  2. Once the ham is roasted, skim the fat from the pan, pour the liquor through a fine sieve, and remove the rind from the ham.

  3. Beat the liquor with a bit of butter and serve it under the ham.

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. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + peppertop 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut of meat that is slowly roasted and served.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the basting liquor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the liquor.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the basting liquor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the liquor before serving.

The step that matters

Basting the ham with the liquor. Basting frequently keeps the surface moist while the ham roasts, and the liquid's sugars and proteins help it brown. Letting the surface dry out can leave the meat tough and pale.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, white wine, vinegar, onion, clove, pepper, basil):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, white wine, vinegar, onion, clove, pepper, basil. 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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