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Cider Baked Ham

A ham baked with cider and brown sugar, finished with a flour paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,683 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cider Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham overnight in cold water to cover it.

  2. In the morning, wash the ham and place it in a kettle, covering it with cold water.

  3. Add brown sugar and sweet cider to the kettle.

  4. Cover the kettle and simmer for 15 minutes per pound of ham.

  5. Once cooked, remove the ham from the kettle and discard the skin.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the ham in a baking pan, fat side up.

  2. Make a heavy paste of flour and water, and spread it over the top of the ham.

  3. Add another pint of cider and 1 cup of water to the baking pan.

  4. Optionally, stick cloves into the paste on top of the ham.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting frequently.

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. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the ham develop a caramelized, browned glaze.
Sweet cider
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its flavor carries through the ham as it cooks.
Flour and water paste
Forms a protective crust over the ham that helps seal in moisture during baking.

The step that matters

Basting during the bake. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and lets the sugars in the cider and pan liquid build a browned, glossy coating rather than drying out.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, cider, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, cider, flour. 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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