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Most Delicious Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with salt, molasses, onions, spices, and brown sugar, then browned in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Most Delicious Boiled Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate 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 overnight if it is very salty or large.

  2. Scrape and wash the ham well.

  3. Place the ham in a pot and cover it with cold water.

Simmer

  1. Add the coarse sea salt, molasses, chopped onion, black peppercorns, cloves, and allspice tied in a muslin bag.

  2. Simmer gently for 25 minutes per pound.

  3. Once done, remove from heat and let it cool in the cooking water.

Glaze and bake

  1. Peel off the skin and dredge the ham with brown sugar.

  2. Mix brown sugar and brown flour with port wine to make a paste.

  3. Spread the paste over the ham.

  4. Place the ham in a 350°F (175°C) oven until browned.

  5. Brown the ham in the oven.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main meat, which is cooked slowly in salted water until tender.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the ham deeply and helps cure and firm the meat during cooking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark colour to the cooking liquid and the ham's surface.
Brown sugar
Caramelises in the oven, adding sweetness and a browned, glossy crust.
Brown flour
Thickens the port paste so it clings to the ham as a glaze.
Port wine
Moistens the sugar and flour paste and adds fruity, aromatic depth to the glaze.

The step that matters

Browning the glaze in the oven. Sugar burns quickly at high heat, so the glazed ham must be watched closely while the sugars caramelise to a browned, not blackened, crust.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, molasses, clove, allspice, sugar, flour, port wine):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, molasses, clove, allspice, sugar, flour, port wine. 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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