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Devilled, or Barbecued Ham

Ham slices flavored with vinegar, mustard, and pepper, then simmered in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Devilled, or Barbecued Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the ham

  1. Slice the cold ham and lay it in a clean frying pan.

  2. Fry gently in the rendered fat until the lean is soft and the fat is clear and beginning to crisp.

  3. Remove the slices with a fork and keep them warm over boiling water.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add vinegar, mustard, and pepper to the fat in the frying pan.

  2. Stir until it boils, then pour it over the ham.

  3. Let it stand covered over boiling water for five minutes before serving.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold ham
Provides the meat itself, with its fat rendering to flavour the pan.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and cuts the richness of the fat.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that gives the devilled character.

The step that matters

Stir until it boils, then pour over the ham. Boiling the vinegar and mustard into the hot fat blends them into a sauce and drives off harsh raw sharpness. Pouring it on immediately lets the ham absorb the flavour while warm.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, 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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