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 Ramakins
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the ham gently in water for 4 hours for a 10 lb ham, or 5 hours for a 15 lb ham.
Remove the ham from the pot and strip off the skin.
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the ham.
Optionally, glaze the ham or add a frill of cut paper around the knuckle.
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 cooked protein, becoming tender through slow simmering in water.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the ham as a coating.
The step that matters
Simmer gently. Gentle simmering cooks the ham evenly and keeps the meat tender and juicy. A hard boil toughens the proteins and dries the outer layers before the centre is done.
“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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