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To Bake a Ham

A ham baked in a plain crust, then sprinkled with sugar and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Bake a Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Prepare a plain crust.

  3. Roll the crust out and cut it to fit the ham.

  4. Wrap the crust around the ham like dumplings.

  5. Place the wrapped ham in a pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the ham for 1 hour per pound.

  2. Cover the ham while baking.

  3. Remove the crust from the ham.

  4. Sprinkle the ham with sugar and melted butter.

  5. Return the ham to the oven.

  6. Bake the ham slowly for 1 hour.

  7. Place the ham in a covered dish.

  8. Weigh the ham down.

  9. Let the ham cool before slicing.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 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 through and sliced for serving.
Plain crust
Wraps the ham and holds in moisture during the long bake.
Sugar
Caramelizes on the surface, adding sweetness and browning.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the sugared surface brown.

The step that matters

Sprinkling with sugar and butter, then baking slowly. Sugar burns quickly at high heat, so the glaze can scorch before it browns. Returning the ham to the oven and baking slowly lets the sugar caramelize gradually without turning bitter or dark.

“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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