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Ham Boiled with Herbs

A ham boiled with herbs, then browned in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ham Boiled with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Place the ham in a pot of cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Add the bay leaf, thyme, and parsley.

Braise and finish

  1. Boil slowly for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the ham, discard the skin, and spread grated bread crumbs over it.

  3. Place the ham in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes to brown.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Thyme + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,993 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ham + thymetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow simmering.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crust that browns in the oven, adding texture to the surface.
Thyme
Adds aromatic herbal flavour that infuses into the cooking liquid and meat.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a mild herbal flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 2 hours. A slow simmer keeps the ham tender and lets the herbs flavour it gradually. A hard, rapid boil can toughen the meat and make it dry at the edges.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, bread. 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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