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Baked Stuffed Ham

A ham baked with a bread and onion filling, topped with eggs, cracker crumbs, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the ham

  1. Wash the ham well and place it in a pot of hot water. Boil for three hours.

  2. When nearly cold, remove the skin from the ham.

Stuff and bake

  1. Prepare the dressing by mixing the bread, onions, butter, celery seed, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper.

  2. Make deep incisions in the ham and fill them with the dressing.

  3. Spread the beaten eggs mixed with cracker crumbs over the ham and sprinkle with brown sugar.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for two and a half to three hours, basting frequently with the juices from the ham.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish, and its juices keep the coating moist while baking.
Baker's bread
Absorbs liquid and binds with the onions and butter to form a soft, moist dressing.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumb coating so it sets into a crust over the ham.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the topping and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Basting during the long bake. Frequent basting with the ham's own juices keeps the surface moist over a long bake, while the sugar on top browns and the egg coating sets; skipping it can leave the outside dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, bread, butter, celery, sage, thyme, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, butter, celery, sage, thyme, pepper. 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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