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Baked Ham I

A ham cooked in water, vinegar, pepper, cloves, sugar, and bread crumbs, then baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Baked Ham I

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the ham

  1. Wash the ham and place it in cool water.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and add enough fresh water to just cover the ham.

  4. Add the whole pepper and cloves, then bring to a slow boil again.

  5. Stir in the cider vinegar.

Glaze and bake

  1. Once the skin can be removed, place the ham in a baking pan.

  2. Cover the ham with light-brown sugar and fine bread crumbs.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden 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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Clove + cidertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering before baking.
Light-brown sugar
Caramelises in the oven to add sweetness and a golden, glossy crust.
Fine bread crumbs
Combine with the sugar on the surface to form a crust that browns in the oven.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the simmering liquid a sharp, tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering before baking. Simmering slowly, rather than boiling hard, keeps the meat tender and stops the outer layer from toughening. Removing the skin only once it can be lifted cleanly avoids tearing the surface before the glaze goes on.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, cider, vinegar, sugar, bread. 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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