Name: Ham with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: ½ pound of ham, cut into small round slices; ½ pint of tomato sauce; a dozen small potatoes

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,798 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

½ pound of ham, cut into small round slices
½ pint of tomato sauce
a dozen small potatoes

Directions

In a sauté pan, layer the ham slices.
Pour the tomato sauce over the ham.
Heat the dish gently until the ham is warmed through.
Boil the small potatoes until tender and serve them alongside 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + tomatotop 22% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together348 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ham + potatotop 24% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together127 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Provides the main savoury, meaty flavour and the substance of the dish.
Tomato sauce: Adds moisture and acidity, and coats the ham as it warms.
Potatoes: Add starchy body, turning soft and filling when boiled until tender.

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

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

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Mustardbetter flavor fit
Okrabetter flavor fit
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.