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 ↓
Boiled Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
If the ham is very dirty, soak it for 12 hours, then wrap it in a clean cloth and lay it on stone flags for 2 days, keeping the cloth moistened with clean soft water.
Thoroughly scrape and clean the ham, then place it in a large pot.
Boil and finish
Add enough water to cover the ham completely.
Boil the ham for 3.5 to 6 hours, depending on its weight.
Once cooked, carefully remove the skin to prevent the ham from drying out.
Spread bread crumbs over the ham.
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
- Is the main cut being cooked, so its size and weight set the length of boiling.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a coating over the surface of the cooked ham, adding texture to the outside.
The step that matters
Removing the skin after cooking. Pulling the skin off while the ham is still hot and carefully, without tearing the fat underneath, helps keep the meat from drying out as it cools.
“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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