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To Bake a Ham

A ham coated in a barley meal paste and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Bake a Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak and cleanse the ham as for boiling.

  2. Make a paste with the barley meal, about 1 inch thick.

  3. Cover the ham with buttered paper.

  4. Completely envelope the ham with the paste, sealing the joints well.

Bake

  1. Place the ham in a baking dish and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes per pound.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Barley + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Ham + barleytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The main meat, enclosed in paste so its juices stay in during baking.
Barley meal
Forms a thick, sealed paste casing that holds moisture in and shields the ham from direct heat.

The step that matters

Sealing the paste completely around the ham. Any gap in the paste lets steam and juices escape, so the ham can dry out. A tight, unbroken casing keeps moisture trapped while the meat cooks through.

“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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