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To Boil Bacon Ham

A ham boiled in water with vinegar, pepper, mustard, and sugar, then browned and basted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Boil Bacon Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Clean the ham well and place it in a large pot.

  2. Fill the pot with cold water and let it boil slowly for 5 to 6 hours.

  3. Remove the ham and place it in a dish to drain.

  4. While still hot or when cool, remove the skin.

Glaze and roast

  1. Place the ham in the oven to brown.

  2. Mix vinegar, black pepper, ground mustard, and sugar.

  3. Baste the ham with the mixture while it roasts.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Main cut of meat; slow simmering makes it tender and fully cooked.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that cuts through the sweetness of the glaze.
Sugar
Sweetens the glaze and caramelizes to a browned, glossy finish.
Ground mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that balances the sweetness of the glaze.

The step that matters

Basting while the ham roasts. Sugar in the glaze browns quickly and can scorch in a hot oven before the surface sets. Basting builds a glossy coat, so check colour often and lower the heat if it darkens too fast.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, pepper, sugar. 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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