Why it works: Ham and sherry work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
To Bake Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the ham overnight.
Wipe the ham and place it in a turkey pan with a little water or sherry wine.
Bake
Cover the pan tightly to keep the steam in.
Cook for 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the ham.
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.
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Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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 becomes tender and moist as it cooks slowly in steam.
- Water or sherry wine
- Adds moisture to the pan so steam forms and keeps the ham from drying out.
The step that matters
Cover the pan tightly to keep the steam in. Trapped steam keeps the surface moist and heats the ham gently, so a loose cover lets moisture escape and the meat dries out during the long cook.
“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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