Why it works: Ham and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,666 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓
Boiled Ham
Ingredients
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.
Soak the ham in cold water for several hours or overnight.
Wash the ham thoroughly and trim off the hard skin near the end of the bone.
Place the ham in a kettle and cover it with cold water.
Heat the water to a boiling point and then cook the ham slowly until tender, about 4 to 5 hours.
Remove the kettle from the heat and let the ham cool partially in the water.
Take the ham out of the water and remove the outside skin.
Sprinkle the ham with sugar and fine cracker crumbs, then stick cloves into it, spaced half an inch apart.
Bake the ham in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.
Serve cold, thinly sliced.
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.
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Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,666 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovethe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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