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 ↓
Ham, to Boil
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a sweet ham and check its smell and appearance.
Soak the ham in water for 8 to 24 hours if very dry and salty, changing the water frequently.
Wash the ham and trim off any rusty or smoked parts.
Boil
Place the ham in a pot and cover with cold water.
Bring the water to a boil gradually, skimming off any scum.
Simmer gently until the ham is tender, ensuring it does not boil too quickly.
Finish and serve
Remove the ham from the pot.
Strip off the skin.
Sprinkle with bread-raspings or glaze.
If serving cold, let the ham cool in the water to retain juices.
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.
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 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
- Is the main food, and its cure and smoke give it flavour that the long simmer makes tender.
The step that matters
Simmer gently until the ham is tender. Boiling hard toughens the meat and makes the outside break apart, while a gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps it juicy.
“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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