Why it works: Ham and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,516 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Ham Baked
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the ham thoroughly.
If the ham is heavily salted, parboil it first.
Coat and bake
Make a paste of flour and water.
Cover the ham completely with the paste.
Place the ham in a dripping pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.
Finish
Once done, remove the ham and rind together.
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 + flourtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,516 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 protein that becomes tender and flavorful during long, gentle baking.
- Flour
- Forms a protective paste that shields the ham surface and helps it stay moist while baking.
- Water
- Mixes with the flour to form the paste that coats and insulates the ham.
The step that matters
Parboiling a heavily salted ham. Excess salt can make the finished ham unpleasantly salty. Parboiling draws out some surface salt before baking, so the flavor ends up balanced.
“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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