Name: Ham Boiled
Ingredients: 1 ham; hot water to cover; 1 pint cider vinegar; 2 onions; fine bread crumbs; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon pepper; 1 pint white wine

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Ham Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Soak the ham overnight.
Wash the ham thoroughly the next morning.
Place the ham in a kettle and cover it with hot water.
Add the cider vinegar and onions to the water.

Simmer and skin

Let the ham simmer for five hours, turning it once.
Remove the ham from the kettle and take off the skin.

Coat and bake

Sprinkle fine bread crumbs mixed with sugar and pepper over the ham.
Bake the ham at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.

Alternative finish

Alternatively, return it to a smaller kettle.
If using a kettle, pour white wine over the ham, close tightly, and cook for one 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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Cider + white winetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together194 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Main protein that becomes tender and moist during long, gentle simmering.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the cooking liquid.
Onions: Add savoury aroma and sweetness to the simmering liquid.
Fine bread crumbs: Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the ham.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crumb coating brown in the oven.
White wine: Adds moisture and aroma during the covered cooking in the alternative method.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, cider, vinegar, bread, sugar, pepper, white wine):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cider, vinegar, bread, sugar, pepper, white wine. 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.