Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Ham, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a sweet ham; check for smell and appearance.
Soak the ham in water for 24 hours if very dry and salty, or 8 to 12 hours for Yorkshire or Westmoreland ham.
Wash the ham thoroughly and trim off any rusty or smoked parts.
Boil
Place the ham in a pot and cover it with cold water.
Bring the water to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.
Simmer gently until tender: about 4 hours for a 10 lb ham, 5 hours for 15 lb, or 6 hours for larger.
If serving cold, let the ham cool in the water to retain juices.
Finish and serve
Remove the ham from the pot and strip off the skin.
Sprinkle bread crumbs or glaze over the ham and add a paper frill around the knuckle.
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.
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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, whose salt and cure shape the flavour and need soaking.
- Bread crumbs or glaze
- Adds a coating that browns and sweetens the surface of the ham.
The step that matters
Simmer gently. A rolling boil toughens the meat and breaks up the surface, so keep the water barely bubbling while the ham cooks slowly until tender.
“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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