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Barbecued Ham

Barbecued ham slices seasoned with salt, mustard, vinegar, wine, and sugar, then fried 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. Prepare the ham as in recipe No. 36.

  2. Lay the slices in a pan and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

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

  4. Pour in ½ teaspoon of vinegar for each slice.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry quickly, turning often until cooked.

  2. Remove and place on a dish.

  3. Add ½ cup of wine and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the gravy. Boil once and pour over the slices of 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Slices of ham
Main protein that is fried and served in the sauce.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the ham.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the gravy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and salt.

The step that matters

Fry quickly, turning often until cooked.. Frying over high heat and turning frequently browns the surface while keeping the ham from drying out. Overcooking toughens the meat and dulls its flavor.

“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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