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Boiled Ham

A ham simmered in water and vinegar, then coated with brown sugar and bread crumbs, finished by baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Simmer the ham

  1. Simmer the ham in enough water to cover for 4 hours, adding ½ cup of vinegar.

Glaze and bake

  1. Once cooked, remove the skin and rub brown sugar over the ham.

  2. Sprinkle the ham with bread crumbs.

  3. Add more brown sugar and ½ cup of sherry wine.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Bread + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together682 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
Is the main cooked meat that the whole dish is built around.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the simmering liquid, giving the ham a slightly tangy flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown and caramelize during baking.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust on the surface that helps hold the sugar glaze.
Sherry wine
Adds aromatic flavor and moisture to the glaze as the ham bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the brown sugar and sherry before baking. Sugar browns and caramelizes in the oven's heat, so the glaze can burn if the ham is left too long at high heat. Watch the surface closely during the final hour.

“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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