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Barbecued Ham

A ham coated in a vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper sauce, then reheated.

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 ↓

Barbecued Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Lay the cold fried ham in the sauce and let it absorb the flavors.

  3. Reheat the ham in the sauce before 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fried ham
Is the main food that absorbs the sauce and is reheated in it.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps it flavor the ham.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Reheat the ham in the sauce before serving. Reheating the ham gently in the sauce warms it through while letting it keep absorbing flavor. Overheating can toughen the meat and cause the sauce to reduce too much, so heat it gently.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, ham. 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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