Skip to main content
Main

To Roast a Ham

A ham roasted with white wine, then coated with crumbled bread and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Roast a Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Remove the skin from the ham and soak it in lukewarm water for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Place the ham in a pan.

  3. Pour the white wine over the ham and let steep for 10 to 12 minutes.

  4. Lay 4 or 5 sheets of paper over the fat side of the ham.

  5. Pour the wine into the pan.

Roast and finish

  1. Baste the ham while roasting.

  2. Once done, remove the paper and dredge the ham with crumbled bread and parsley.

  3. Brown the ham before a brisk fire; garnish with crumbled bread if serving hot, or with parsley if serving 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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. White wine + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  4. White wine + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together827 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,249 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
Is the main cut that is soaked, roasted and browned, so it forms the body of the dish.
White wine
Steeps into the ham and is poured into the pan, adding moisture and aroma during roasting.
Crumbled bread
Forms a crust on the surface of the ham as it browns, adding texture.

The step that matters

Browning the ham before a brisk fire. Browning depends on surface heat and dryness. Paper covering and basting keep the surface moist, so the ham can brown only at the end, and a brisk fire needs watching to avoid scorching the crumb coating.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, white wine, bread. 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.

More roasted ham recipes

and Chicken with Gravy 3 See all 16 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes