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To Fbt Ham

A ham baked with a cornmeal crust and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Fbt Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “the hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the ham into thin slices, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Heat a skillet and cook each slice for a few minutes on each side until thoroughly heated.

Make the gravy

  1. To make gravy, stir a little flour into the fat in the skillet, then pour in boiling water.

  2. Sprinkle pepper over the ham and the gravy.

Crust and bake

  1. Wash the ham and wipe it dry.

  2. Make a dough with corn meal and water, then cover the ham with it.

  3. Place the covered ham in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) and bake for 4.5 hours for a 10-12 pound ham.

Finish

  1. When done, remove the crust and skin.

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. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Ham + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main dish, heated through in the skillet and then baked under the crust.
Flour
Thickens the gravy by binding with the pan fat and boiling water.
Corn meal
Forms a dough that covers the ham and bakes into a crust that browns in the oven.
Boiling water
Loosens the pan fat and flour into a liquid gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring flour into the fat before adding the water. Cooking the flour in the hot fat coats the starch grains so they disperse evenly. Adding it straight to liquid can clump, and the gravy then stays lumpy and thin.

“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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