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Baked Ham

A ham baked with onion, carrot, tomato, wine, and browned cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,606 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham.

  2. Wash the ham.

  3. Parboil the ham for 12 minutes per pound.

  4. Remove the skin from the ham.

  5. Rub flour into the ham to stanch the juices.

Bake

  1. Place the ham in a 400°F (200°C) oven with the sliced onion, minced carrot, and minced tomato.

  2. Pour in ½ cup of hot water to prevent burning.

  3. Cover the ham closely.

  4. Bake for 12 minutes per pound, basting four times with wine and four times with pan gravy.

  5. Sprinkle browned cracker-crumbs thickly over the ham.

  6. Leave in the oven until firm and evenly colored.

Finish the gravy

  1. Strain the gravy.

  2. Thicken it with browned flour.

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. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Carrot + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut of meat that is cooked and served.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aroma and flavor to the basting liquid and pan gravy.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the juices that form the gravy.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavor to the pan gravy.
Tomato
Adds acidity and body to the pan gravy.
Browned cracker-crumbs
Form a browned, crisp crust on the outside of the ham.

The step that matters

Cover the ham closely. Covering traps steam so the ham heats through and stays moist while the surface is protected. Basting then builds flavor, and removing the cover later lets the crust brown.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, tomato, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, tomato, sherry. 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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