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Roast Ham

A ham roasted with salt, sugar, ginger, mustard, prunes, apple, and a breadcrumb glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Roast Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Skin the ham and rub it with salt, sugar, ginger, and mustard.

  2. Place the ham in a roasting pan with prunes, apple, and boiling water.

Roast and glaze

  1. Roast until cooked through, basting frequently.

  2. Mix breadcrumbs with syrup, vinegar, and a little mustard to form a paste.

  3. Spread the breadcrumb mixture over the ham.

  4. Return the ham to the oven to brown.

Finish the sauce

  1. Strain the sauce.

  2. Thicken the sauce with flour.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

  4. Ginger + mustardtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

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

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main joint that is cooked through and carved for serving.
Breadcrumbs
Form a paste that crisps and browns on the surface of the ham.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and helps the breadcrumb crust brown.
Prunes
Add sweetness and moisture to the pan juices that become the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup and prunes.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained pan juices into a sauce.

The step that matters

Return the ham to the oven to brown. The breadcrumb paste can burn quickly once the sugars in the syrup caramelise, so the ham needs close watching while the crust browns.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, ginger, mustard, vinegar, syrup):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, ginger, mustard, vinegar, syrup. 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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