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Baked Ham

A ham baked with a flour and water paste, coated in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,905 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham overnight in warm water.

  2. Scrub the ham thoroughly.

  3. Trim away any rusty parts.

  4. Wipe the ham dry.

  5. Cover the bottom with a stiff paste made of flour and water.

Bake

  1. Place the ham upside down in a roasting pan with enough water to prevent burning.

  2. Bake for 25 minutes per pound, basting occasionally to prevent the skin from cracking.

  3. Keep hot water in the pan during baking.

  4. When a skewer pierces the thickest part easily, remove the ham and plunge it into cold water for 1 minute.

  5. Carefully remove the skin.

Glaze and serve

  1. Brush the ham with beaten egg.

  2. Coat the ham thickly with cracker crumbs.

  3. Return the ham to a hot oven to brown.

  4. Serve hot or cold, garnished with sprigs of celery or parsley.

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. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Ham + celerytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Ham + flourtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut being cooked, so its size sets the baking time.
Flour
Forms a stiff paste with water that shields the bottom of the ham from burning.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs stick to the ham's surface.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crust that browns in the oven, adding texture and colour.

The step that matters

Basting and keeping water in the pan. Basting keeps the surface moist so the skin does not crack, and water in the pan keeps the roasting pan from scorching while the ham cooks slowly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour, egg. 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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