Skip to main content
Main

Baked Ham

A ham baked with vinegar, mustard, and brown sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Cover the ham with cold water and simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours to loosen the skin.

  2. Once skinned, place the ham in a roasting pan.

Bake and glaze

  1. Mix the vinegar, hot water, and mustard, then pour over the ham.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, basting with the liquid.

  3. After 2 hours, cover the ham with 1 inch of brown sugar and press it down firmly.

  4. Do not baste again until the sugar forms a thick crust.

  5. Bake for an additional hour until the sugar is a rich golden brown.

Cool and press

  1. Drain the ham and let it cool on a dish.

  2. Once cool but not cold, press the ham with a flat dish and a weight on top.

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

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Ham
The main cut, which is cooked slowly so it stays moist and tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweet glaze.
English mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the pork.
Coarse brown sugar
Melts and caramelises on the surface, forming a sweet, golden-brown crust.

The step that matters

Leave the sugar alone until it forms a crust. Basting over the sugar too early would dissolve it into the liquid instead of letting it set into a crust. Heat then caramelises the sugar into a browned, glossy coating.

“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.

More baked ham recipes

with Apples 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes