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Boiled Ham

A ham cooked by soaking in cold water, then boiling with vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the ham in cold water for 12 to 24 hours.

  2. Cover the ham with boiling water.

Boil

  1. Add vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley.

  2. Boil the ham until fully cooked.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Vinegar + thymetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Ham + thymetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Main protein that becomes tender and flavorful as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidic note to the cooking liquid.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the cooking liquid.
Thyme
Contributes a savory herbal aroma to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the ham until fully cooked. A hard, rolling boil toughens meat proteins and can dry out the outer layers. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer and check doneness with a thermometer rather than relying only on time.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, parsley. 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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