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Ham, Southern Style

A ham simmered with brown sugar, molasses, spices, and sherry wine, then coated with egg white and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ham, Southern Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Simmer the ham in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the water.

  3. Add enough cold water to cover the ham.

  4. Add brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and bay leaves.

  5. Cook until done.

  6. Leave the ham in the water overnight.

Finish and glaze

  1. In the morning, carefully remove the skin.

  2. Beat the egg white with bread crumbs and a little mustard.

  3. Cover the ham with the mixture.

  4. Place the ham in a pan with sherry wine and baste until 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, cured in liquid, and then glazed.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during basting.
Molasses
Adds depth, sweetness, and dark color to the cooking liquid and glaze.
Egg white
Binds the bread crumbs and mustard so the coating stays on the ham.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan liquid used for basting.

The step that matters

Baste until brown. The sugars and proteins in the coating brown quickly at high heat, so the surface can burn before it turns evenly golden. Watch the color closely and baste often to build a glossy, even crust.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, egg, bread):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, egg, bread. 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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