Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Boiled Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Cut off the end bone of the ham and scrape the underside.
Wash the ham in warm water.
Boil the ham
Place the ham in a large kettle and cover it with cold water.
Heat the ham slowly until it begins to boil.
Once boiling, cook for 3 hours.
Finish the ham
Remove the ham and place it skin side down on a large platter.
Trim off all the outside and place the trimmings on another plate.
Turn the ham upside down and remove the skin.
Sprinkle black pepper on the surface and wrap the bone with fringe paper.
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 + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar cured ham
- Is the main meat, whose cured flesh is cooked gently in water until tender.
The step that matters
Heat the ham slowly until it begins to boil. Bringing the ham up to heat gradually from cold water helps it cook evenly and keeps the outer meat from toughening before the center is done.
“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.
More boiled ham recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.