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Ham Cooked in Wine

Ham cooked in wine with mustard, egg yolk, bread crumbs, sugar, cloves, raisins, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Cooked in Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Scrub and soak the ham in water for 48 hours.

  2. Weigh the ham and simmer in cold water for ½ hour per pound.

  3. After half the time, pour off the water and fill with fresh boiling water, adding vinegar, bay leaf, and cloves.

  4. Finish cooking until done, then let the ham cool in the water.

Glaze and bake

  1. Remove the skin and mix mustard with vinegar; spread over the ham.

  2. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with bread crumbs and sugar, and pin with cloves and raisins.

  3. Make incisions in the ham and pour in sherry.

  4. Bake in the oven for ½ hour, basting every 5 minutes.

  5. Do not cut until completely cool.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Ham
Is the main body of the dish, cooked slowly in liquid so it stays moist and tender.
Sherry
Poured into incisions to add aroma and a subtle sweetness to the meat.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the surface, it helps the crumb coating adhere and browns during baking.
Mustard
Spread over the ham, adding sharp flavour that contrasts with the meat's richness.
Vinegar
Added to the cooking water and mustard, contributing acidity that sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Let the ham cool completely before cutting. Cutting while hot lets the juices escape and the meat firm up unevenly; cooling in the liquid lets the muscle fibres relax and hold moisture.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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