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To Boil a York Ham

A boiled ham from York, served hot or cold, optionally glazed and garnished with peas, Brussels sprouts, or spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and peas work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 402 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

To Boil a York Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select a ham with a smooth thin skin and a plump shape.

  2. Soak the ham in cold water for 24 hours.

  3. Scrape the ham clean and place it in a pot with cold water.

Cook and trim

  1. Simmer the ham for 3 hours, then let it cool in the water.

  2. Remove the rind and trim the fat smoothly.

  3. Place the ham on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes.

  4. Dab the ham with a clean cloth to absorb excess grease.

Glaze and serve

  1. Brush the ham with glaze or sprinkle with raspings if desired.

  2. If serving hot, cover with buttered paper and heat in the oven for 30 minutes before glazing.

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 + peastop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

York ham
The main joint, which becomes tender and moist through long, gentle simmering.
Glaze
Forms a glossy coating on the outside and adds sweetness and flavour to the surface.

The step that matters

Simmer the ham for 3 hours, then let it cool in the water.. A gentle simmer below boiling breaks down connective tissue without toughening the meat. Cooling in the cooking liquid lets the ham stay moist and reabsorb some of its juices.

“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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