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Deviled Ham

Deviled ham is thin slices of raw ham coated with mustard, vinegar, butter, cayenne pepper, and flour, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Deviled Ham

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Deviled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the mustard, vinegar, melted butter, and cayenne pepper in a bowl.

  2. Spread the mixture on both sides of the ham slices.

  3. Dredge the ham slices with flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the ham for 8 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Raw ham
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the seasoned coating.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the ham and butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mustard and butter mixture.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the coating cook and brown under the broiler.
Flour
Dries the coated surface and helps it brown and form a light crust while broiling.

The step that matters

Broil the ham for 8 minutes. Thin ham slices dry out and toughen quickly under high heat, so watch closely. The flour and butter coating needs enough heat to brown without scorching, so the timing matters.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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