Why it works: Ham and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,516 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Baked Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the ham overnight in enough water to cover it.
Dissolve 2 tablespoons of baking soda in the water and add it to the ham.
Bake
Make a batter with flour and water, then spread it over the ham.
If the ham is large, bake for 3 hours; if small, bake for 2 hours.
Place sticks in the pan to keep the ham out of the fat.
Finish and serve
Once done, scrape off the batter and serve.
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.
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Ham + flourtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,516 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- The main cut of meat, which is cooked slowly inside the batter crust.
- Flour
- Mixed with water to form a batter that sets into a firm crust, sealing in moisture around the ham.
The step that matters
Choosing the bake time by ham size. Bake time must match the ham's size. A large joint needs longer for heat to travel to its centre, so using the small-ham time can leave the middle underdone, while overbaking dries the outer meat.
“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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