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Stuffed Ham

A ham filled with a breadcrumb and spice mixture, then coated with egg white, sugar, and crackers, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Gottolene, spices, sugar, mustard, and beaten eggs.

  2. Moisten the mixture with cream until it holds together.

Stuff and coat the ham

  1. Gash the hot boiled ham and fill the cuts with the stuffing mixture.

  2. Rub the outside of the ham with egg white.

  3. Sprinkle the ham with sugar and grated crackers.

Bake

  1. Place the ham in the oven to brown at 400°F (200°C).

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing together and help it set as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing and soak up moisture from the cream.
Gottolene
Adds richness and fat, keeping the stuffing tender and moist.
Sugar
Sweetens the stuffing and, sprinkled on top, promotes browning in the oven.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the sweetness of the ham and sugar.

The step that matters

Gash the ham while it is hot and fill the cuts. Filling the cuts while the ham is still hot lets the stuffing settle into the openings. Cooling first makes the surface firmer and harder to open evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, clove, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, celery):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, clove, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, celery. 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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