Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Boiled Ham
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
Wash the ham and soak it in cold water for 10-12 hours.
Cook
Place the ham in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil.
Skim the water and reduce heat to maintain a gentle bubble.
Cook the ham for 5 hours, then remove and peel off the skin.
Bake and finish
Sprinkle the skinned ham with crumbs and sugar.
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour.
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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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 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
- Ham
- Is the main cut; long soaking and simmering make it tender and remove excess salt.
- Dried crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating on the skinned surface as they bake.
- Sugar
- Caramelizes with the surface during baking, adding browning and sweetness to the crust.
The step that matters
Maintain a gentle bubble while cooking the ham. A hard rolling boil toughens the meat fibers and can split the skin, so the ham stays tender and intact only when the water simmers gently.
“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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