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To Pry Ham

Thin slices of ham are cooked and served with a simple flour‑based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Pry Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the ham into thin slices, about ¼ inch thick.

Cook the ham

  1. Heat a skillet over medium‑high heat.

  2. Cook each slice of ham for a few minutes on each side until heated through.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Stir a little flour into the fat in the skillet.

  2. Pour in boiling water and stir until smooth.

  3. Sprinkle pepper over the ham and in the gravy.

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. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  3. Ham + flourtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the pan fat. Flour must be stirred into the fat so it coats the starch granules evenly; otherwise lumps form and the gravy thickens unevenly when the boiling water goes in.

“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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