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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled for about four hours, then topped with browned bread crumbs and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

Prepare the ham

  1. Trim any discolored parts from the ham and wash it well.

  2. Place the ham in a large pot and cover it with cold water.

Boil

  1. Bring the water to a boil slowly, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Once boiling, reduce the heat to simmer gently for about 4 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ham from the pot and strip off the skin using a cloth.

  2. Sprinkle the top of the skinned ham with browned bread crumbs.

  3. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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

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

  3. 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavorful as it simmers slowly in water.
Browned bread crumbs
Add a crisp, golden topping and a toasted flavor to the finished ham surface.

The step that matters

Bring the water to a boil slowly, skimming off any scum. Slow heating lets impurities and proteins rise to the surface, where skimming removes them, keeping the broth clear and the ham tasting clean.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, 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.

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