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Ham, with Savoury Crust

A ham coated with a mixture of bread crumbs, sugar, cloves, and beaten egg, then baked until browned.

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

Ham, with Savoury Crust

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

  1. Remove the skin from the ham.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs with sugar and powdered cloves.

Coat and bake

  1. Place the ham in a baking dish and brush it with the beaten egg.

  2. Thickly sprinkle the seasoned crumbs over the ham.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes to brown.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,129 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the crust and absorbing heat as it warms through.
Bread crumbs
Form the crust that browns in the oven and holds the seasoning on the surface of the ham.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the crumbs stick to the ham's surface.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown when heated.

The step that matters

Bake until just browned. The crust needs only a few minutes in a hot oven to brown. Sugar in the crumbs browns quickly, so leaving it too long can scorch the crust before the ham is heated through.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, sugar, egg. 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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