Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Smoked Ham Roast
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the ham
Soak the ham slice in hot water for 30 minutes (do not boil).
Remove the ham from the water and place it in a baking dish.
Mix the sugar and mustard together and rub it into both sides of the ham.
Sprinkle the chopped green pepper over the top of the ham.
Season with white pepper and pour the milk into the baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake the ham at 300°F (150°C) for about 1.5 hours, keeping it covered most of the time.
If the ham bakes dry, add more water or milk.
Serve hot with natural gravy, or thicken with flour and more milk if desired.
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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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together747 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,478 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 other ingredients.
- Top milk
- Adds moisture and creates a rich, mild sauce as it heats in the dish.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface of the ham brown during baking.
- Dry mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
- Green pepper
- Adds fresh, slightly bitter aroma and flavour as it softens in the baking juices.
The step that matters
Soaking the ham without boiling. Hot water softens and draws out some of the surface salt of a smoked ham. Boiling would toughen the meat and make it dry and firm, so the water should stay below a simmer.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, milk, pepper, mustard, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Allspicefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, pepper, mustard, sugar. 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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