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Stuffed Ham

A ham filled with a seasoned breadcrumb and meat mixture, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°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 overnight, skin side up.

  2. Scrape, wash, trim, and weigh the ham.

  3. Place the ham in cold water and bring to a boil.

  4. Boil for 15 minutes per pound, keeping it covered with hot water.

  5. Check doneness with a fork; it should pull out easily.

  6. While hot, remove the skin and trim excess fat.

Make the stuffing

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in cream until moistened.

  2. Mix in butter, spices, salt, and pounded meat until well combined.

Stuff and bake

  1. Make incisions in the underside of the ham, about 1.5 inches apart.

  2. Fill each incision with the stuffing mixture.

  3. Spread the beaten egg yolks over the ham.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

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. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked by boiling before it is stuffed and baked.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in cream, they bind the stuffing and hold moisture within it.
Cream
Moistens the bread crumbs, adding softness and richness to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the stuffing a softer, more tender texture.
Egg yolks
Spread over the surface, they enrich the coating and promote browning in the oven.
Veal, chicken breast, or white meat
Pounded into the stuffing to add body and substance to the filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the ham to doneness. Boiling time is set per pound and the fork test shows when the meat is tender. Undercooking leaves it tough, while overcooking dries it out and makes it fall apart.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, bread, cream, butter, clove, pepper, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Winter savoryfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, cream, butter, clove, pepper, thyme. 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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