Name: Ham Cooked in Cider
Ingredients: 1 pint cider; 1 cup brown sugar; water (enough to cover the ham)

Why it works: Cider and ham work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 83 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Ham Cooked in Cider

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

1 pint cider
1 cup brown sugar
water (enough to cover the ham)

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

In a large pot, combine the cider, brown sugar, and enough water to cover the ham.
Boil for three hours, or until the skin peels off easily.
Remove the skin from the ham.
Cover the ham with a crust of sugar.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.
Dissolve 1 cup of sugar in 1 pint of cider and baste the ham frequently while baking.

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.

Cider + hamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together83 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + hamtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,084 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).