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Spiced Ham

A ham cooked in water with cloves, mace, allspice, pepper, then baked to brown the fat side.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced 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 and simmer

  1. Place the ham in a pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the ham and discard the water.

  4. Replace with hot water and stir in the spices.

  5. Cover and cook until the bones are loose.

Decorate and brown

  1. Remove the ham, peel off the skin, and decorate with whole cloves.

  2. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to brown the fat side.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat and fat; slow simmering softens its connective tissue so it becomes tender.
Ground cloves
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that flavours the cooking liquid and the meat.
Ground mace
Adds a sweet, warm aroma that complements the other spices.
Ground allspice
Adds a blended warm aroma reminiscent of several spices.
Ground pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the ham a savoury edge.

The step that matters

Simmer until the bones are loose. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil. Vigorous boiling toughens and breaks up the meat, while gentle heat lets connective tissue soften slowly and the spices infuse evenly.

Swap the mace

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

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

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