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Deviled Ham

A preserved ham product made by grinding cured ham and cooked meat, spiced, canned, and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Deviled Ham

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Grind the cured ham and cooked meat together at least five times using a sausage grinder.

  2. In a bowl, mix the potato flour, ground chili peppers, cayenne pepper, sugar, and mace.

  3. Combine the spice mixture with the ground meat.

Can and cook

  1. Fill one-fourth pound cans with the mixture, leaving one-eighth inch from the top.

  2. Seal the cans, leaving a small hole at the top.

  3. Place the cans in boiling water for seven minutes, then remove and seal the hole.

  4. Cook the sealed cans in boiling water for 45 minutes.

Cool

  1. Cool the cans top side up in cold water for 15 minutes, then turn them bottom side up and let them cool completely in the water.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cured ham
Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the spread.
Potato flour
Absorbs and binds moisture, helping the mixture hold a smooth, spreadable texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the salty cured meat and the heat of the peppers.
Cayenne pepper
Supplies sharp heat that carries through the cooked meat.

The step that matters

Seal the hole after the first boil. The small hole lets steam escape during the first heating. Sealing it at the right moment keeps air and moisture controlled so the sealed can cooks properly and stays safe to store.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, meat, potato, flour, pepper, 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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