Name: To Boil Hams
Ingredients: 1 ham; water (enough to cover the ham); 1 tablespoon brown sugar; 1 tablespoon wine vinegar; bread crumbs

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 Hams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

Simmer and remove skin

Simmer for 20 minutes per pound of meat.
Once done, remove the skin from the ham.

Glaze and bake

Grate bread crumbs over the top of the ham.
Sprinkle brown sugar over the bread crumbs.
Pour wine vinegar over the bread crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

Serve

Serve cold.

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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wine + breadtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together956 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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

Ham: Is the main cut of meat that is simmered, then baked and served.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the topping brown during baking.
Wine vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the sweet topping.
Bread crumbs: Form a crust-like topping that holds the sugar and vinegar over the ham.

“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.