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Hams — Boiled

A ham boiled for several hours, then topped with bread crumbs and boiled carrots.

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 ↓

Hams — Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in water for 12 hours if it is dirty.

  2. Wrap the ham in a clean cloth and place it on stone flags for 2 days, keeping the cloth moist.

  3. Thoroughly scrape and clean the ham.

Boil and finish

  1. Place the ham in a pot and cover it with water.

  2. Boil the ham for 3.5 to 6 hours, depending on its weight.

  3. Once cooked, carefully remove the skin without breaking it.

  4. Spread bread crumbs over the ham and garnish with sliced boiled carrots.

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 + carrottop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + carrottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 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
Is the main cut, and its long simmering makes the meat tender and fully cooked.
Bread crumbs
Coat the surface of the ham, adding a light crumb texture and a dry finish.

The step that matters

Boil the ham for the full time. Boiling time depends on weight, and a ham that is too short a time may stay underdone at the centre. Cooking it fully through makes the meat safe and tender, so check the weight before choosing the time within the range.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Carrotthe 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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