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Baked Ham

A ham baked with milk, water, brown sugar, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,165 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. 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

  1. Soak the ham in cold water overnight, covered.

  2. In the morning, remove the ham from the water, wipe it dry, and keep it cool.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  4. Place the ham in a double roaster.

Bake

  1. Mix the milk and water together, add the brown sugar, and pour over the ham.

  2. Add the cloves and bake for 3.5 to 4 hours.

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. Milk + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Ham + milktop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and is cooked slowly until tender.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown and caramelize during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture and mild richness to the liquid that surrounds the ham as it bakes.
Whole cloves
Contribute a warm, aromatic flavour to the baking liquid and ham.

The step that matters

Soaking the ham overnight. Soaking draws out some of the surface salt from cured ham, so skipping or shortening it can leave the finished ham too salty.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, milk, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, sugar. 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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