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Stuffed Ham

A ham filled with a seasoned breadcrumb mixture, cooked, then garnished with pepper or paprika and fresh herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham overnight and scrub it well in the morning.

  2. Use a narrow, sharp knife to loosen the meat along the bone and withdraw it.

  3. Remove the flat bone from the butt-end of the ham.

Stuff and cook

  1. Fill the cavity with a stuffing of bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper, butter, onion, and Worcestershire sauce.

  2. Pack the stuffing tightly and sew the ham into shape using mosquito-netting.

  3. Cover the ham with cold water mixed with vinegar and cook for 20 minutes per pound after boiling begins.

  4. Leave the ham in the water until lukewarm, then remove it and press it under an inverted dish with a heavy weight for 8 to 10 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the cloth and skin, then dot the top with black pepper or paprika in a decorative pattern.

  2. Serve surrounded by a garland of asparagus tops, nasturtium flowers, parsley, and marigolds.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the meat that is cooked, pressed and sliced for serving.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and onion flavour in the stuffing and help it hold its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the bread crumb stuffing.
Vinegar
Adds mild acidity to the cooking water, giving a slightly tangy flavour to the ham.
Onion
Adds aromatic savoury flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Pressing the ham after cooking. Pressing under a weight for 8 to 10 hours while the ham cools compacts the meat and stuffing so it holds a firm, even shape when sliced. Pressing too lightly or too briefly may leave it loose and crumbly.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, bread, pepper, butter, onion, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, bread, pepper, butter, onion, sauce. 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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