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Glazed Ham

A ham coated in cracker crumb glaze and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Glazed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Boil and cool

  1. Soak and boil the ham for 20 minutes per pound.

  2. Let it cool in the water until almost cold.

  3. Remove the skin neatly.

Glaze and bake

  1. Coat the ham with a paste made from cracker crumbs, milk, beaten eggs, and pepper.

  2. Place the ham in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the glaze is browned, moistening with cream occasionally.

Garnish

  1. Wrap frilled paper around the shank.

  2. Garnish with pastry.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The main joint, cooked first by boiling and then finished in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the crumb paste so it sets into a firm coating as it bakes.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the paste and form the crisp, browning surface layer.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs so they spread into an even paste.
Cream
Adds moisture to the surface during baking, helping the glaze brown without drying.

The step that matters

Moistening the glaze with cream during baking. The coating can dry out and scorch before it browns evenly. Adding cream occasionally keeps the surface moist, so the egg and crumb layer sets and browns gently rather than burning.

“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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