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Stuffed Ham

A ham filled with a mixture of crushed crackers, spices, mustard, mango stuffing, and egg yolks, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the ham

  1. Boil the ham until fully cooked the day before preparing.

  2. Remove the skin from the ham and make incisions to the bone in several places.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine crushed crackers, mace, nutmeg, mustard, and mango stuffing.

  2. Lightly whip in enough egg yolks to form a stiff paste.

  3. Stuff the mixture into the incisions until full.

Bake and glaze

  1. Beat the yolks of six eggs with butter and flour until light.

  2. Spread the egg mixture over the ham before baking.

  3. Bake the ham in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Nutmeg + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the stuffing into a stiff paste that holds its shape.
Crushed crackers
Crumbs absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and texture.
Butter
Fat in the egg glaze adds richness and helps it brown lightly.
Mustard
Adds sharp, acidic flavour that balances the richness of the ham.
Flour
Thickens the beaten egg glaze so it spreads and clings to the ham.

The step that matters

Lightly whip in the egg yolks. Overbeating incorporates too much air, and the stuffing may then lose its stiff, paste-like texture as it sets in the oven. Mixing only until combined keeps it dense enough to hold inside the incisions.

Swap the mango

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, mace, nutmeg, mustard, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mace, nutmeg, mustard, egg, butter, flour. 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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