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Ham Braised

Ham braised in white wine and brown braise, served over stewed spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and spinach work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 234 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ham Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the ham in warm water for 24 hours.

  2. Boil the ham in cold water for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the ham.

  4. Trim the rind.

Braise

  1. Place the ham in a stewpan.

  2. Add white wine and brown braise.

  3. Cover tightly.

  4. Stew gently until done.

  5. Remove the ham.

  6. Wipe dry.

  7. Glaze it.

Serve

  1. Serve the ham on a bed of stewed spinach.

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. White wine + spinachtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Sauce + spinachtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. White wine + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together819 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ham + white winetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The main cut, which is soaked, boiled and then braised until tender.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, balancing the rich flavour of the ham.
Brown braise
Supplies the savoury, deeply flavoured liquid in which the ham slowly cooks.

The step that matters

Stew gently until done. Stewing gently keeps the liquid below a hard boil, so the meat softens through slow breakdown of connective tissue instead of tightening and drying out.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, white wine, sauce. 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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