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Baked Ham

A ham baked with vinegar, mustard, and brown sugar, forming a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the ham in cold water.

  2. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours to loosen the skin.

  3. Remove the skin and place the ham in a roasting pan.

  4. Mix the vinegar, hot water, and mustard.

  5. Pour the mixture over the ham.

Glaze and bake

  1. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours.

  2. Baste the ham with the liquid.

  3. Cover the ham with brown sugar, pressing it down firmly.

  4. Bake for an additional hour until the sugar forms a thick crust and the ham is golden brown.

Cool and press

  1. Drain the ham and let it cool on a dish.

  2. Once cool but not cold, press the ham with a flat dish and a weight on top.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramelizes under heat to form a browned, thick crust.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar glaze.
Mustard
Adds sharp, savoury flavour to the glazing liquid.
Hot water
Forms the liquid that moistens the ham while it bakes in the pan.

The step that matters

Pressing the ham when cool but not cold. Pressing at this stage lets the warm, still-soft meat settle into a firm, even shape as it cools. Pressing fully cold ham is harder, and pressing it too warm can squeeze out juices and make it crumble.

“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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