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Potted Ham

A preserved ham made by steaming chopped ham with mustard, cayenne, butter, and melted butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Potted Ham

Why it works: Ham and mustard work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 747 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Potted Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Trim all the meat from the boiled ham and chop it very fine, removing all outside pieces and gristle.

  2. Pound the chopped meat to a paste and measure it.

Season and pot

  1. For each pint of meat, mix in 1 teaspoon of mixed mustard and a small pinch of cayenne. If the ham is very lean, add 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Pack the mixture smoothly into small earthen jars and cover with paper.

Steam and store

  1. Place the jars in a deep baking dish and surround them with hot water nearly to the top.

  2. Steam the jars slowly for 2 hours.

  3. After steaming, remove the jars and let them cool with the covers on.

  4. Once cool, remove the covers, pour a little melted butter into each jar, replace the covers, and store in a cool, dry cupboard until needed.

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

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the meat that is pounded into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to lean ham, and a sealing layer on top.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Steaming slowly. Gentle, low-heat steaming cooks the meat evenly without drying or toughening it. Rapid boiling can make the paste dense and dry, so the water should stay hot rather than violently boiling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter. 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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