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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: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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.

Boil and cool

  1. Soak and boil the ham for 20 minutes per pound.

  2. Let it cool in the water.

  3. 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.

Finish

  1. Wrap the shank with frilled paper and garnish with pastry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

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

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 that the paste coats and the oven heats through and browns.
Cracker crumbs
Bulk out the paste and absorb liquid so it clings to the ham as a coating.
Eggs
Bind the paste so it holds together and sets into a firm coating in the oven.
Milk
Loosens the crumbs into a spreadable paste and adds moisture to the coating.
Cream
Added during baking to keep the glaze moist so it browns evenly rather than drying out.

The step that matters

Moistening with cream during baking. Hot, dry oven air dries the surface quickly, which can make the glaze scorch in patches before it browns evenly. Adding cream occasionally keeps the coating moist so it colours gradually and evenly.

“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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