Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Ham

Slices of ham are boiled, grilled, or coated with egg and crackers, then broiled or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Broil Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham slices in hot water for 30 minutes.

  2. Alternatively, scald the ham slices in a pan over heat.

Brown the ham

  1. Place the slices on a grill over bright coals and brown each side.

  2. Transfer the slices to a hot dish.

  3. Butter them generously.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper before serving.

Coat and cook

  1. After scalding, dry the slices.

  2. Dip the slices in beaten egg.

  3. Coat the slices with rolled crackers.

  4. Fry or broil the coated slices.

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. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Main meat that is browned and eaten; its surface must be dry to brown well.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the surface brown and the flavour carry.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker coating sticks to the ham.
Rolled crackers
Forms a crisp, browned coating when fried or broiled.

The step that matters

Dry the slices after scalding. Surface water keeps the beaten egg from sticking, so the cracker coating can slip off or stay patchy. Drying the ham first lets the egg and crumbs adhere and brown evenly.

“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.

More broiled ham recipes

and Eggs 6 See all 39 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes