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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled, then baked with sugar, breadcrumbs, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

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

  1. Soak the ham in cold water overnight.

  2. Remove the ham from the soaking water and wipe the ham.

Boil

  1. Place the ham in a saucepan covered with fresh cold water.

  2. Boil slowly for about three hours.

  3. Let the cooked ham cool before removing the skin.

Glaze and bake

  1. Sprinkle the ham with sugar.

  2. Make a few incisions on the surface of the ham.

  3. Cover the ham lightly with fine bread crumbs.

  4. Sprinkle the ham with white pepper.

  5. Bake the ham in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until well browned.

  6. Serve immediately.

Serve

  1. Allow the ham to cool and slice thinly for serving.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,249 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ham + white peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Dense meat that becomes tender and moist during slow simmering.
Sugar
Caramelises on the surface in the oven, adding sweetness and browning.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a dry layer on the surface that toasts and browns in the oven.
White pepper
Adds a mild, sharp aroma to the surface of the ham.

The step that matters

Boil slowly. A gentle simmer cooks the ham evenly and keeps the meat tender and moist. A hard, rolling boil toughens the outer meat, can break up the surface, and cooks the outside faster than the centre.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, bread, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, bread, parsley. 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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