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Broiled Ham

A sliced ham is boiled to reduce salt, dried, broiled, seasoned with pepper, and optionally buttered.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Broiled Ham

Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Broiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ham into slices.

  2. If the ham is salty, pour boiling water over it and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

  3. Wipe the ham dry.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the ham over a clear fire.

  2. If the ham looks dry, drizzle a little melted butter on it.

  3. Season with pepper before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main protein, cooked by direct heat so its surface browns and its fat renders.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture to the surface, helping prevent the ham from drying out while it broils.
Boiling water
Draws out some of the salt in a salty ham by soaking it briefly before cooking.

The step that matters

Wipe the ham dry before broiling. Surface moisture must evaporate before the surface can brown. A wet surface steams instead, so the ham browns poorly and looks grey.

“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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