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Glazed Ham

A ham glazed with egg, cracker paste, and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Glazed Ham

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. Boil the ham for 20 minutes per pound, then let it cool in the cooking liquid.

  2. Early the next morning, carefully remove the skin and trim any rusty edges.

Make the coating

  1. Brush the ham all over with the beaten egg.

  2. Mix the crushed crackers with milk and pepper, then bind with another beaten egg to form a paste.

  3. Spread the paste about ¼ inch thick over the ham.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the ham in a 400°F (200°C) oven until lightly browned.

  2. Serve cold, sliced thin, and garnish with frilled paper around the shank.

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

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

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Ham + milktop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The main cut, cooked first, then coated and baked.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker crumbs into a paste and helps the coating set and brown.
Crushed crackers
Form the bulk of the crumb coating that crisps and browns in the oven.
Milk
Moistens the crackers so they form a spreadable paste.

The step that matters

Watch the coating as it browns in the oven. The crumb coating has no sugar, so browning comes from the proteins in the egg and milk and the starch in the crackers. Checking it closely keeps it lightly golden rather than dark and dry, and avoids drying out the ham beneath.

“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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