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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with spices, then coated with egg and breadcrumbs, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham overnight and wash it carefully, removing any rust or mold.

  2. Place the ham in a large pot and cover it with cold water.

  3. Add the bay leaf, cloves, mace, sugar, and fresh hay if using.

Cook the ham

  1. Heat the water gradually, ensuring it does not boil for at least two hours.

  2. Simmer gently for 15 minutes per pound of ham.

  3. Allow the ham to cool in the cooking liquid, keeping the skin on.

Coat and brown

  1. Once cool, brush the ham with beaten egg and coat it with bread crumbs or cracker dust.

  2. Brown the ham in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Garnish with watercress or parsley before serving.

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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  3. Clove + watercresstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together107 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 slowly cooked so it becomes tender and moist.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs or cracker dust stick to the ham's surface.
Bread crumbs or cracker dust
Forms a crisp coating that browns in the oven for a golden outer crust.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.

The step that matters

Heating the water gradually. Bringing the water up slowly and keeping it below a boil avoids toughening the meat fibres. A rapid boil can make the ham tough and dry, so a gentle simmer gives a more tender result.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

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