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Boiled Ham

A ham boiled with vinegar and molasses, spiced with cloves, then baked with cracker crumbs and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Soak the ham in a large vessel of water overnight.

  2. Put the ham in cold water with vinegar and molasses.

  3. Boil gently for about five hours until tender.

Finish and brown

  1. Remove the ham from the water, peel off the skin, and stick cloves into the ham.

  2. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs and brown sugar.

  3. Place in the oven to 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.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

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

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, becoming tender during the long, slow simmer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the cooking liquid and the meat.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep colour, and helps the surface take on a darker glaze.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the crust and caramelises in the oven to give a browned finish.
Cracker crumbs
Form a coating on the surface that crisps and browns in the oven.
Cloves
Add a warm, spiced aroma to the outer layer of the ham.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about five hours. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in the ham break down slowly, giving tender meat. A hard, rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres and can leave the meat tough and dry.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, molasses, sugar. 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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