Name: Boiled Ham
Ingredients: 1 ham; 1 pint yeast; water; a wisp of new hay

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

1 ham
1 pint yeast
water
a wisp of new hay

Directions

Prepare

Wash the ham thoroughly and soak it in plenty of water mixed with 1 pint of yeast overnight.
Boil fresh water and add 1 pint of yeast.

Cook

Add a wisp of new hay to the bottom of the kettle to mellow the taste and prevent burning.
Place the ham in the boiling water and cook slowly.

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast: Its fermentation during the overnight soak is said to help mellow the ham's flavour.
Ham: The main cut of meat, which is cooked slowly in the boiling water.

“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.