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Stuffed Ham

A ham filled with a bread and spice dressing, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the ham

  1. Boil the ham slowly until well done and the bone can be removed.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the toasted bread or crackers, celery seed, black pepper, spice, cloves, mustard, sugar, egg yolks, pickles, chopped onions, and a little vinegar.

Stuff and bake

  1. Make incisions all over the ham.

  2. Press the dressing into the incisions.

  3. Spread the remaining dressing over the top of the ham.

  4. Glaze with egg white.

  5. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the dressing as it cooks.
Toasted bread or crackers
Absorbs moisture and binds the dressing so it holds its shape in the incisions.
Egg yolks
Enrich the dressing and help bind it into a moist, set mixture when baked.
Egg white
Forms a glaze on the surface that helps the top brown during baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the glaze brown in the oven.
Onions
Add aroma and moisture to the dressing as they soften.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C). Low, gentle heat warms the ham and sets the egg yolks in the dressing without drying the meat or curdling the eggs. Baking too hot can toughen the ham and make the dressing grainy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, bread, celery, pepper, mustard, sugar, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, celery, pepper, mustard, sugar, egg. 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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