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Potted Ham

A ham mixture of lean and fat ham, spices, and bay leaf baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potted Ham

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mince the lean and fat ham very fine or run it through a sausage machine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced ham with mace, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Mix thoroughly and press the mixture into a dish or pot.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 25 minutes, ensuring the top does not brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ham + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,050 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the potted mixture.
Fat ham
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the potted ham soft and spreadable.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the ham.
Nutmeg
Contributes a sweet, warm aroma that rounds out the spiced flavour.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a light background heat that sharpens the savoury flavour.
Bay leaf
Adds a subtle herbal, aromatic note to the spiced mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the top from browning. Browning on the surface can make the top taste harsh and dry, so the ham should be watched and kept pale while it bakes through.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, nutmeg, pepper. 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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