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Potted Ham

A ham cooked in water with spices, then ground and canned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Potted Ham

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Potted Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ham

  1. Place the ham or shoulders in a kettle and cover with cold water.

  2. Add mace, cloves, and bay leaves.

  3. Bring slowly to a boil and simmer for 4 hours.

  4. Remove the ham, skin, and bone, then grind to a paste.

Season and pack

  1. Mix in ground white pepper, cayenne pepper, powdered sage, and salt if needed.

  2. Pack into cans, cap, and process like beef.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham or shoulders
Provides the meat that is cooked, ground into a paste, and becomes the body of the spread.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the simmering liquid and the finished meat.
Cloves
Adds a pungent, sweet-spiced aroma that flavors the meat during simmering.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle herbal aroma during simmering.
Ground white pepper
Adds sharp, earthy heat to the seasoned paste.
Ground cayenne pepper
Adds direct heat that sharpens the savory flavor of the ham.

The step that matters

Simmering the ham. Bringing the ham to a boil slowly and simmering gently keeps the meat tender and moist rather than tough and stringy. Because the meat is later ground to a paste, its texture and flavor are set by this long cooking. Keeping the heat gentle also helps the spices infuse evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, mace, clove, pepper, sage):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mace, clove, pepper, sage. 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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