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To Cook Venison Ham

A venison ham baked with bacon, onion, spices, and a sour wine-water mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,171 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Cook Venison 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. Place the trimmed ham in a baking pan.

  3. Layer the bacon and onion slices over the ham.

  4. Sprinkle with spices and thyme.

  5. Mix the sour wine with enough water to cover the ham.

  6. Pour the wine mixture into the baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pan tightly and bake for 2 to 2.5 hours.

  2. Remove the cover for the last 30 minutes to brown the ham.

  3. Serve with the gravy and onions from the pan.

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. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Thyme + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Venison + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

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

  5. Onion + winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison ham
Forms the main body of the roast and provides the meat that is cooked slowly until tender.
Bacon
Adds fat that bastes the meat as it cooks, keeping it moist and adding savory flavor.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and flavors the pan juices for the gravy.
Sour wine
Adds acidity that helps tenderize the meat and gives the sauce a tangy flavor.

The step that matters

Remove the cover for the last 30 minutes to brown the ham.. Covered baking traps steam, which keeps the meat moist but prevents surface browning. Uncovering for the final stretch lets dry heat brown the surface and concentrate the flavor of the pan juices.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, ham, thyme, wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, ham, thyme, 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.

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