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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled for three hours, then baked with sugar, bread crumbs, cloves, and sherry or champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and rest

  1. Boil the ham for three hours with bay leaf.

  2. Leave the ham in the water overnight.

Glaze and bake

  1. Remove the skin and rub the ham all over with sugar.

  2. Sprinkle the fat part with bread crumbs and insert cloves into the ham.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes, basting with sherry or champagne.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Clove + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,237 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Bread + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together682 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,129 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The main joint of meat, which becomes tender and juicy through long, gentle cooking in water.
Sugar
Rubbed over the surface, it caramelizes in the oven, adding sweetness and golden browning.
Bread crumbs
Sprinkled on the fat, they form a crisp, lightly browned crust during baking.
Sherry or champagne
Basting with it adds moisture to the surface and a bright, aromatic flavour.
Cloves
Inserted into the ham, they add a warm, spiced aroma.
Bay leaf
Simmered in the cooking water, it adds a subtle herbal aroma to the ham.

The step that matters

Rubbing with sugar and baking. Sugar browns quickly in a hot oven and can scorch before the crust sets. Basting keeps the surface moist and helps an even, golden glaze form.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, bread, sherry. 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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