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Ham or Tongue

A baked ham or tongue coated in breadcrumbs and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham or Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Simmer and rest

  1. Soak the ham or tongue in cold water.

  2. Heat the water gradually until it bubbles.

  3. Cook at a low temperature until tender.

  4. Remove from heat and let it stand in the cooking water for 1 hour.

Skin and brown

  1. Take it out and remove the skin.

  2. Cover the ham or tongue with fine bread crumbs and sugar.

  3. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes to brown.

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

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

  2. Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,638 recipes

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

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham or tongue
The main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle cooking.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust during oven browning.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook at a low temperature until tender. High heat tightens muscle proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving meat tough and dry. Gentle, steady heat lets connective tissue break down slowly, so the meat becomes tender and juicy.

“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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