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Baked Ham

A ham baked with maple syrup or brown sugar after boiling and seasoning with cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,386 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Boil the ham

  1. Boil the ham in enough water to cover it, adding vinegar.

  2. Skim off the grease frequently.

  3. Once tender, remove the ham and take off the rind.

Glaze and bake

  1. Slash the fat on top and insert a clove in each slash.

  2. Rub the ham with maple syrup or brown sugar.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 40 minutes.

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 + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + maple syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Maple syrup + clovetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together173 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the meat, which becomes tender during long, gentle simmering in water.
Vinegar
Adds mild acidity to the cooking water, which helps keep the meat moist and tender.
Maple syrup or brown sugar
Sugars brown on the surface in the oven, adding sweetness and a glossy colour.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, spicy aroma that flavours the fat cap as it bakes.

The step that matters

Glazing before the bake. Sugar in the glaze can scorch if the oven is too hot. A moderate 300°F oven lets the sugars caramelise slowly and evenly over the fat rather than burning.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, maple syrup):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, maple syrup. 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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