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Baked Ham

A ham baked with a flour and water paste, covered in breadcrumbs and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,671 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake

  1. Prepare the ham as if for boiling.

  2. Make a paste of flour and water about ½ inch thick and cover the ham closely with it.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, remove the paste and the skin.

  2. Sift brown breadcrumbs over the ham, stick cloves into it, and place a paper frill around the knuckle.

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. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

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

  3. Ham + flourtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 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
The main joint, which cooks slowly inside the sealed paste so it stays moist and tender.
Flour
Forms a paste that seals the ham and traps moisture during the long bake.
Brown breadcrumbs
Sifted over the ham to add a golden, crisp surface.
Cloves
Pressed into the ham to add a warm, spiced aroma.

The step that matters

Cover the ham closely with the paste. The paste acts as a sealed shell. Any gaps let moisture escape during the long bake, leaving the meat drier and less tender.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour. 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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