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Ham, Spanish

A ham braised in wine and stock after soaking and boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Ham, Spanish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Scrape the ham and soak it in cold water for 30 to 40 hours, changing the water twice or thrice.

  2. Boil the ham in cold water for 1 hour.

Braise and cool

  1. Transfer the ham to a braising pan and cover it with wine and stock.

  2. Cook gently for 4 hours or more, depending on the size, then let it cool in the liquid.

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. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Ham + winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together303 recipes

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

  3. Wine + meattop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together754 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat, whose long soak and gentle cooking make it tender and flavourful.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Stock
Supplies savoury body and moisture for the slow braise.

The step that matters

Gentle long cooking. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the meat tender and prevents it from toughening and drying out as collagen slowly softens into gelatin over the hours.

“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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