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Boiled Ham

A ham cooked slowly in water, vinegar, spices, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Check the ham for freshness by inserting a sharp knife near the bone; if greasy and smells bad, discard it.

  2. Wash the ham thoroughly, removing any rusty parts.

  3. Soak the ham in cold water and vinegar for 8 to 12 hours.

Cook

  1. Cover the ham with cold water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Add a little vinegar, mace, cloves, thyme, bay leaves, and vegetables for flavor.

  3. Simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours, depending on the weight of the ham.

  4. Allow the ham to cool in the cooking water, then remove it once cold.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the skin and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Place a paper frill around the knuckle 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. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Mace + thymetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main protein, becoming tender and sliceable through long, gentle simmering.
Vinegar
Acidity helps loosen the surface and adds a subtle tang to the soak and cooking liquid.
Bay leaves
Add a gentle aromatic herbal note to the cooking liquid.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma to the cooking liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, delicate spice aroma to the cooking liquid.
Bread crumbs
Form a light coating on the skinned surface, adding texture and a dry crust.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. A gentle simmer keeps the ham tender and prevents the muscle fibres from tightening and toughening. Vigorous boiling can make the meat dry and stringy and break up the surface.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, clove, thyme, 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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