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Glazed Ham

A ham coated with cracker crumbs, milk, eggs, and pepper, baked until browned and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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 the ham

  1. Soak and boil the ham for 20 minutes per pound, then let it cool in the water.

  2. Remove the skin carefully.

Glaze and bake

  1. Coat the ham with a paste made from cracker crumbs, milk, beaten eggs, and pepper.

  2. Place the ham in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the glaze is browned, moistening with cream occasionally.

Garnish and serve

  1. Wrap the shank with frilled paper and garnish with 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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
Is the main cut that is cooked, glazed and served as the centrepiece.
Cracker crumbs
Bind with milk and eggs to form a paste that thickens and clings to the surface.
Eggs
Bind the crumb paste so it sets into a coating rather than sliding off.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs so they form a spreadable paste that cooks into a coating.
Cream
Added during baking to keep the surface moist and help it brown evenly.

The step that matters

Baking the glazed ham. The crumb coating can dry out or burn before it browns. Moistening with cream during baking keeps the surface moist, so the proteins and starches brown gently instead of scorching.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, egg, pepper, cream. 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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