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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with water, then coated in flour, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, and browned in a dripping pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the ham

  1. Wash the ham and place it in a kettle with plenty of water.

  2. Boil slowly until tender.

  3. Remove the ham and peel off the rind.

Glaze and bake

  1. Dredge the ham with flour and sprinkle with sugar.

  2. Add a little cinnamon and stick a few cloves into the ham.

  3. Place the ham in a dripping pan with a little water.

  4. Continue cooking until the ham is browned and well done.

  5. Serve hot or cut into thin slices when cold.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Ham
Is the main cut that is cooked, tenderised by slow boiling and then browned.
Flour
Coats the surface so it browns and forms a crust during the final cooking.
Sugar
Caramelises on the surface as it browns, adding sweetness and colour.
Cinnamon
Adds aroma and warm flavour to the outer surface of the ham.
Cloves
Add a pungent, aromatic flavour that penetrates the ham as it cooks.

The step that matters

Continue cooking until browned and well done. Flour and sugar brown only with sustained dry heat, and the surface can scorch before the centre is fully cooked. Watch colour closely and keep a little water in the pan to moderate the heat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, flour, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour, sugar, cinnamon. 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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