Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
To Boil a Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the ham
Boil the ham for 5 to 6 hours.
After half the cooking time, remove the skin.
Finish in the pan
Cover the fat side with grated cracker or bread crumbs.
Place the ham in a dripping pan.
Cook for the remaining time.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Main meat that becomes tender and moist through long, gentle cooking.
- Cracker or bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned crust on the fat side as the ham finishes cooking.
The step that matters
Remove the skin after half the cooking time. The skin protects the meat and keeps it moist while it simmers. Removing it at the halfway point exposes the fat so the crumbs can adhere and brown during the final cooking.
“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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