Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Cooking Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the salt, saltpetre, and sugar into the ham and turn it occasionally.
Boil
Boil the ham slowly in a pot without a cover for about 2½ hours.
Check if the skin comes off easily to ensure it is cooked.
Finish
For presentation, remove the skin and either cover with breadcrumbs and brown in the oven or sprinkle sugar and pass a red-hot iron over the surface.
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.
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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Main protein; slow simmering keeps its meat tender and moist.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the ham keep its pink colour during curing.
- Moist sugar
- Balances the saltiness and aids browning of the surface.
The step that matters
Boiling slowly, uncovered. A gentle simmer cooks the ham evenly without toughening the meat, while a rolling boil can make the outside tough and dry. Checking that the skin pulls away easily confirms it is cooked 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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