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To Boil Ham

A ham boiled with vegetables and spices, finished with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Boil Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham for 24 hours, changing the water three times.

  2. Scrub the ham well and trim it nicely.

  3. Place the ham in a pot covered with cold water.

  4. Add madeira for special occasions or beer for plainer ones.

Cook

  1. Bring to a gentle boil, skimming frequently.

  2. Add celery, carrots, onions, garlic, and spices in a bag.

  3. Boil until vegetables are cooked, then remove them.

  4. Continue boiling gently for 4 to 5 hours.

Finish

  1. When done, let the ham cool slightly, then remove the skin.

  2. Dredge the ham thickly with fine breadcrumbs.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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 slowly cooked until tender and flavourful.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid that infuses the ham.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the cooking liquid.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the cooking liquid.
Fine breadcrumbs
Form a coating on the ham's surface that adds texture and crumb.

The step that matters

Keep the boil gentle and skim often. A rolling boil toughens the meat's proteins and makes the ham tough and dry, while a gentle simmer cooks it evenly. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beer, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beer, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, clove. 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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