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Baked Virginia Ham

A ham baked with brown sugar and cracker crumbs after simmering.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,666 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Virginia 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.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in cold water for 2 days, changing the water 4 times.

  2. Put the ham in fresh cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 4 to 6 hours until tender.

  3. When cool, remove the skin.

Glaze and bake

  1. Stick the ham with cloves.

  2. Cover the ham with brown sugar and sprinkle with cracker crumbs.

  3. Brown the ham in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

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 + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Virginia ham
Is the main cured meat that is softened by soaking and simmering before glazing.
Brown sugar
Melts and caramelizes in the oven, adding sweetness and a browned crust.
Fine cracker crumbs
Absorb the melting sugar and help form a crisp, browned coating on the surface.

The step that matters

Browning the glazed ham in the oven. Brown sugar and crumbs can burn quickly at high heat, while too little heat leaves the coating pale and soft. Watching the surface keeps the sugar caramelized rather than scorched.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, 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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