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Suggestions on Boiling Ham

A ham is boiled with cider, hay, and then finished with bread crumbs and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Suggestions on Boiling Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the ham

  1. Clean the ham thoroughly, scrubbing to remove grime and salt.

  2. Soak the ham in hot water for 12 hours to remove the rind.

  3. Trim the ham and place it in a kettle on top of a bunch of fresh hay.

Simmer

  1. Cover the ham with sweet cider and bring to a boil.

  2. Simmer until tender, probing with a skewer to check doneness.

  3. Lift the ham out and drain on a sieve.

Glaze and bake

  1. Sprinkle thickly with a mixture of bread crumbs and brown sugar.

  2. Set in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.

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

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

  2. Cider + breadtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

  3. Ham + cidertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together83 recipes

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

  4. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,638 recipes

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

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 cleaned, soaked, simmered and then baked until tender.
Sweet cider
Liquid that simmers the ham, adding gentle sweetness and moisture as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form the base of the topping that crisps and browns in the oven.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the crumb topping and helps it caramelize and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender, probing with a skewer. Simmering must be gentle and long enough for connective tissue to soften. Checking with a skewer confirms the ham is tender throughout, since the surface can look done before the centre is.

“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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