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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with vinegar, water, celery, turnips, onions, herbs, then coated with bread crumbs and garnished.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in a mixture of vinegar and water for a few hours.

  2. Place the ham in a pot with cold water.

Cook

  1. Bring to a boil, then add the celery, turnips, onions, and herbs.

  2. Simmer gently for about 4 hours or until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ham, strip off the skin, and cover with bread crumbs.

  2. Garnish with a paper frill around the knuckle and parsley or vegetable flowers.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main protein, becoming tender and flavorful as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Vinegar
Its acidity in the soaking liquid helps season and lightly firm the surface of the ham.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid as it simmers with the ham.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the cooking liquid and the finished dish.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma to the simmering liquid.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating on the skinned ham that adds texture to the surface.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 4 hours or until tender. A rolling boil toughens the meat and can break the surface apart. Gentle simmering lets the connective tissue slowly soften, so the ham becomes tender and stays intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, celery, turnip, bread, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, celery, turnip, bread, parsley. 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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