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Baked Ham

A ham baked with sherry wine, brown sugar, cracker crumbs, and a gravy made from pan fat and brown stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and sherry work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Prepare the ham as for boiling and simmer it slowly for 4 hours.

  2. Remove the ham and cut off the skin.

  3. Press cloves into the fat of the ham.

Bake and glaze

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting initially with sherry wine and then with the fat in the pan.

  2. Fifteen minutes before it's done, cover with cracker crumbs and brown sugar.

Make the gravy

  1. To serve hot, make gravy by stirring flour into the fat from the pan, then add brown stock.

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. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sherry + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ham + winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut that is simmered, baked and served as the centerpiece.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the basting liquid, flavouring the ham as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Melts and caramelises under the crumbs, adding sweetness and browning to the crust.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that holds the sugar glaze on the surface.
Flour
Thickens the pan fat and stock into a smooth gravy.
Brown stock
Adds liquid and savoury depth to the gravy made from the pan drippings.

The step that matters

Adding the crumbs and sugar late. Sugar burns quickly at oven heat, so it is added only fifteen minutes before the end. Adding it earlier can scorch the sugar and crumbs before the ham is heated through.

“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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