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Ham, Salt Pobk Akd Bacok

A ham sandwich seasoned with mustard, pepper, and vinegar, served on buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham, Salt Pobk Akd Bacok

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. If the ham is very salty, soak it in cold water for 24 hours.

  2. Put the soaked ham in cold water.

  3. Bring the water slowly to a boil.

  4. Simmer the ham for half a day.

Make the sandwich

  1. For serving, chop 4 ounces of ham finely.

  2. Season the chopped ham with mustard, pepper, and vinegar.

  3. Spread the seasoned ham between slices of buttered bread.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 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 savory meat flavor and the substance of the sandwich.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the ham.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the chopped ham.
Buttered bread
Adds fat and softness that moisten and carry the seasoned ham.

The step that matters

Soaking a very salty ham. Soaking draws out surface and excess salt before simmering. Skipping or shortening it can leave the ham too salty to eat, since salt concentrates as the water is slowly reduced during cooking.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, vinegar, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, vinegar, bread. 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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