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Boned Ham

A ham that is soaked, boiled, boned, and optionally baked or glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boned Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in tepid water overnight.

  2. Boil the ham in warm water until perfectly tender.

  3. Remove the ham.

  4. Let it cool on a wooden tray.

  5. Carefully remove the bone.

  6. Press the ham back into shape.

  7. Return the ham to the boiling water.

  8. Let it cool in the pot.

  9. When cool, cut across.

  10. Serve cold.

Glaze and brown

  1. Skin the ham.

  2. Place it in a baking pan with the lean side down.

  3. Optionally, sift pounded crackers over the ham.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  5. Cover with egg white.

  6. Sprinkle with sugar or crumbs.

  7. Brown in the oven.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat, which is cured, boiled until tender, then pressed into shape.
Egg white
Forms a thin coating that helps the crumbs or sugar adhere and brown in the oven.
Sugar
Caramelises in the oven, adding sweetness and browning to the outside of the ham.

The step that matters

Boil the ham until perfectly tender. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue in the ham, so it becomes tender enough to bone and press without falling apart.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, sugar, allspice, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, sugar, allspice, pepper. 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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