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Baked Ham I

A ham baked with cider vinegar, sugar, and bread crumbs.

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 the water to a boil and cook the ham slowly for 30 minutes.

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

  4. Add 1 teaspoon of whole pepper and 5 or 6 cloves.

  5. Bring the mixture to a slow boil again.

  6. Add 1 pint of good cider vinegar.

  7. Cook until the skin can be removed.

Glaze and bake

  1. Place the ham in a baking pan.

  2. Cover the ham with 1 cup of light-brown sugar and ¼ cup of sifted fine bread crumbs.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes or until it is a delicate 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
Is the main cut of meat that is simmered and then baked until tender and glazed.
Light-brown sugar
Caramelises in the oven to form a sweet, browned crust on the surface.
Fine bread crumbs
Combine with the sugar to form a coating that helps the glaze adhere and brown.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the cooking liquid a sharp, tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until a delicate brown. Sugar darkens quickly at high heat, so the glaze can scorch before the ham is heated through. Watch the colour closely and stop once it is delicately browned.

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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