Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stuffed Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Soak the ham overnight.
Scrub the ham well in the morning.
Use a narrow, sharp knife to loosen the meat along the bone. Withdraw the loosened meat.
Remove the flat bone from the butt-end of the ham.
Stuff and tie
Fill the cavity with a stuffing of bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper, butter, onion, and Worcestershire sauce. Pack the stuffing tightly.
Sew the ham into shape using mosquito-netting.
Cook and press
Cover the ham with cold water mixed with 2 tablespoons of vinegar.
Cook for 20 minutes per pound after the water begins to boil.
Leave the ham in the water until lukewarm.
Remove the ham from the water.
Press the ham under an inverted dish with a heavy weight for 8 to 10 hours.
Remove the cloth and skin.
Decorate and serve
Dot the top with black pepper or paprika using your fingertip to create a pattern.
Serve surrounded by a garland of asparagus tops, nasturtium flowers, or parsley and marigolds.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Forms the main body of the dish and carries the flavour of the cooked meat.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the seasonings and butter, filling the cavity and keeping the stuffing moist.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks.
- Vinegar
- Adds a light acidity to the cooking water.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury depth to the bread crumb stuffing.
The step that matters
Pack the stuffing tightly. Loose stuffing leaves air gaps that can shift during cooking and pressing, so the ham may lose its shape or slice unevenly. Firm packing keeps the filling dense and held in place.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, bread, pepper, butter, sauce):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, bread, pepper, butter, 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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