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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with water, cloves, and optional red pepper, then sliced thin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the ham in warm water and scrape it clean.

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

Cook

  1. Heat the water to boiling, then reduce to a low simmer.

  2. Simmer for 3.5 to 4 hours, turning the ham once or twice.

  3. Test for tenderness with a fork; when tender, remove from heat.

  4. Let the ham stand at the back of the stove until partly cooled.

Finish

  1. Trim the ham and slice it very thin.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 and flavor, and becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Cold water
Covers the ham and cooks it evenly, drawing in heat gradually as it comes to a simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling. A rolling boil toughens the meat fibers and can make the outside dry and stringy. A low simmer lets connective tissue break down slowly, giving tender, moist slices.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper. 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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