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Boiled Ham

A ham is boiled with vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, then topped with bread crust and powdered sugar, baked, and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Boiled 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. Soak the ham in cold water for 12 to 24 hours.

Boil

  1. Cover the ham with boiling water, add vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley.

  2. Boil slowly for 2.5 hours.

  3. Remove the ham, skim the water, and leave a ½ inch layer of fat.

  4. Trim off any blackened parts.

Glaze and bake

  1. Place the ham in a dripping pan, fat side up.

  2. Grate bread crust over the ham and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve cold, slicing the best portions for serving.

  2. Chop the ragged parts for sandwiches or mix with eggs and fry for an omelette.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 simmered, then baked until browned and served cold.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the simmering liquid, which gives the cooked meat a slightly tangy flavour.
Bread crust
Toasts and browns on the surface of the ham during baking, adding colour and crispness.
Powdered sugar
Helps the surface brown during baking, adding sweetness to the crust.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 2.5 hours. A gentle simmer cooks the ham evenly and keeps the meat tender and moist. A hard, rapid boil toughens the proteins and can make the surface ragged.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, parsley, sugar, bread, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, parsley, sugar, bread, egg. 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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