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Barbecued Ham

A ham dish prepared by marinating, seasoning, and frying slices, finished with a sweet wine and vinegar gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barbecued Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the raw ham into slices.

  2. Soak the slices in scalding water for 30 minutes.

Cook

  1. Lay the slices flat in a frying pan.

  2. Pepper each slice and spread ¼ teaspoon of made mustard on each.

  3. Add ½ teaspoon of vinegar to each slice and fry quickly, turning often.

  4. Once cooked, remove from the pan and serve on a dish.

  5. Add ½ cup of wine and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the gravy, boil once, and pour over the meat.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 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

Raw ham
Is the main meat that is sliced, soaked, and fried until cooked.
Made mustard
Adds sharp flavour that complements the pepper and the savoury meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the fried ham.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth to the gravy poured over the meat.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar and wine in the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry quickly, turning often. Frying over high heat and turning frequently sears the surfaces and browns the slices without drying them out. Cooking too long or too slowly toughens the meat and drives out moisture.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, vinegar, wine, sugar. 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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