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Barbecued Ham

Barbecued ham slices seasoned with pepper, mustard, vinegar, wine, and sugar, cooked in a pan and served with a wine-sugar gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barbecued Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the raw ham into slices.

  2. Soak the slices in scalding water for 30 minutes.

Season and fry

  1. Lay the slices flat in a frying pan.

  2. Sprinkle each slice with coarse black pepper.

  3. Spread ¼ teaspoon of made mustard on each slice.

  4. Pour in ½ teaspoon of vinegar for each slice and fry quickly, turning over.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, remove from the pan and serve on a dish.

  2. Add ½ cup of wine and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the gravy, boil once, and pour over the meat.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw ham
The main meat, which is sliced and fried quickly so it browns on the outside.
Coarse black pepper
Adds a sharp, aromatic bite to the surface of each slice.
Made mustard
Adds a pungent, tangy flavor that complements the ham.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the meat and pan juices.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the gravy, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar and wine.

The step that matters

Frying quickly and turning over. Ham is lean and dries out and toughens if overcooked. A quick fry over steady heat, turning the slices, browns the surface while keeping the inside moist.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, vinegar, wine, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, vinegar, wine, sugar. 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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