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Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with ham, forcemeat, spices, bay leaves, bacon, and crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ham Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Remove the bone from the ham.

  2. Fill the space with the forcemeat.

  3. Season the ham with pepper, mace, cinnamon, and cloves.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the ham in the raised crust.

  2. Lay bay leaves and bacon slices on top.

  3. Close the crust.

  4. Bake for 4 to 5 hours at 300°F (150°C).

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the pie and supplies most of its meaty flavour.
Rich forcemeat
Fills the boned cavity, adding moisture and richness so the meat stays tender during long baking.
Fat bacon
Slices laid on top baste the ham as it cooks, adding fat, moisture and savoury flavour.
Raised crust
Encloses the filling, holding its shape and moisture during the long bake.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow for 4 to 5 hours. A long, gentle oven at 300°F lets collagen in the ham break down slowly and the forcemeat set through without drying or toughening the meat. Rushing with high heat would leave the centre undercooked or the meat tough.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, cinnamon, 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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