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Smothered Ham

A ham cooked with a flour and vinegar paste, baked, basted, and finished with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Smothered 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.

  2. Scrub the ham.

  3. Trim the blackened underside of the ham until the meat is clean and red.

  4. Wash the ham with vinegar.

  5. Rub the ham in vinegar well.

  6. Cover the underside with a paste of flour and water.

  7. Lay the ham upside down in a roaster.

Braise the ham

  1. Pour 2 cups of cold water around the ham.

  2. Pour 2 tablespoons of vinegar around the ham.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  4. Stir in 1 tablespoon of minced onion.

  5. Cover the ham closely.

  6. Bake the ham in a 350°F oven for 25 minutes per pound.

  7. Baste the ham five times.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the paste while hot.

  2. Sift fine cracker crumbs over the top.

  3. Brown the ham in a 400°F oven.

  4. Serve the ham cold for best flavor.

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. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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
Is the main cut that is cleaned, braised and browned to serve.
Flour
Forms a paste that shields the underside of the ham during baking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps tenderize the surface.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on top of the ham.

The step that matters

Remove the paste while hot.. Paste that cools hardens and sticks to the meat, so it must be lifted off while still warm to come away cleanly without tearing the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, flour, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, flour, sugar. 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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