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Baked Ham

A ham soaked, coated with flour paste, baked, then glazed and topped with brown crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,516 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in water for 12 hours, or 24 hours if thoroughly matured, changing the water twice.

  2. Scrub the ham in warm water and dry it well.

  3. Make a thick paste with flour and water.

  4. Cover the ham with the paste.

  5. Wrap the ham in greased white paper, securing it with tape or string.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 350°F (175°C) for 5 hours.

  2. Remove the paper and paste.

  3. Pull off the skin.

  4. Trim the ham.

  5. Brush the ham over.

  6. Glaze the ham.

  7. Scatter brown crumbs thickly on top.

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 + flourtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat, which is cured and matured by the long soak before baking.
Flour
Forms a thick paste that seals the ham and helps keep its moisture during the long bake.
Brown crumbs
Scattered on top to add a browned, crisp finish to the surface.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderately hot oven at 350°F (175°C) for 5 hours. The long, steady heat must cook the ham through without drying it out. The flour paste and paper wrap slow moisture loss, so the wrapping should stay sealed for the whole bake.

“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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