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Eoast Ham with Cideb Sauce

A ham simmered with cider, spices, and onions, then baked with sugar, breadcrumbs, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,536 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in cold water for several hours or overnight.

  2. Wash the ham thoroughly.

  3. Scrape the ham.

  4. Trim the hard skin near the bone.

Simmer

  1. Place the ham in a kettle with onion, carrot, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, and peppercorns.

  2. Cover the ham with cold water.

  3. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  4. Simmer for about 4 hours.

  5. After 2 hours, add the cider.

  6. Allow the ham to cool in the cooking liquid.

Glaze and bake

  1. Remove the ham from the liquid.

  2. Take off the skin.

  3. Sprinkle the ham with sugar and bread crumbs.

  4. Sprinkle paprika every 2 inches.

  5. Insert a clove in the center of each dash.

  6. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ham + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,916 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Long simmering in liquid keeps the meat moist and tender as it cooks through.
Cider
Adds acidity and fruity sweetness to the cooking liquid, flavouring the ham.
Sugar
Sweetness that caramelises on the surface during baking, adding colour and flavour.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crust on the surface that helps the coating adhere and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Allow the ham to cool in the cooking liquid. Cooling slowly in the broth lets the meat reabsorb moisture and firm up, so it stays juicy instead of drying out when sliced.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, parsley, clove, cider, sugar, bread):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, parsley, clove, cider, sugar, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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