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Ham, to Boil

A ham boiled with vinegar, water, celery, turnips, onions, and herbs, then garnished with parsley or vegetable flowers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the ham in vinegar and water for a few hours.

  2. Place the ham in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil.

Cook

  1. Add the celery, turnips, onions, and herbs.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 hours or until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ham.

  2. Strip off the skin.

  3. Cover with bread-raspings.

  4. Garnish with parsley or cut vegetable flowers.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, becoming tender and flavorful as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Vinegar
Softens the ham during the initial soak and adds a faint tang.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid that carries into the ham.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and aroma to the simmering broth.
Onions
Release sweetness and savory depth into the cooking liquid.
Savory herbs
Infuse the cooking liquid with aromatic, herbal flavor.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. A gentle simmer keeps the ham tender and moist. A hard boil toughens the meat fibers and makes the outside tough and dry before the center is cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, celery, turnip, bread, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, celery, turnip, bread, parsley. 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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