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To Boil a Ham

A ham boiled in water, optionally flavored with cloves, brandy, and sugar, then browned and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

To Boil a Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the ham with a coarse kitchen cloth and warm water to remove any straws and clamminess.

  2. Place the ham in a large pot and cover it with cold water.

Boil

  1. Heat the ham on the cool side of the fire for about two hours until warmed through.

  2. Stir up the fire and bring the water to a boil.

  3. Boil the ham for 1.5 hours if small, 2 hours if medium, or 2.5 hours if large after the water begins to boil.

Finish and brown

  1. Remove the skin from the ham and sprinkle the raspings over it.

  2. Set the ham before the fire to brown, turning until all sides are evenly browned.

  3. Optionally, stick a few cloves into the ham and pour a glass of brandy and a little white sugar over it before adding the raspings.

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. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Bread + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,129 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main meat; long gentle simmering makes it tender and moist and heats it through.
Raspings from a loaf of bread
Dried breadcrumbs that form a crisp, browned crust when the ham is set before the fire.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface caramelise and brown when heated.

The step that matters

Browning the ham after removing the skin. The ham must be turned so all sides brown evenly; uneven heat or too little turning leaves pale patches and a dry, uneven crust, since browning depends on direct heat and surface dryness.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, bread, brandy, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits less well

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