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Glazed Ham

A ham coated with egg, cracker paste, butter, and baked to brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Glazed Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the coating

  1. Brush the cold boiled ham all over with the beaten egg.

  2. Mix the powdered crackers with enough milk or cream to make a thick paste.

  3. Add salt and melted butter to the mixture and combine well.

  4. Spread the mixture evenly, about ¼ inch thick, over the ham.

Bake

  1. Place the ham in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) to 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Helps the cracker coating adhere to the ham and gives a golden finish.
Powdered crackers
Form the crumb coating that bakes into a crisp, browned crust.
Milk or cream
Moistens the crackers into a spreadable paste and adds richness.
Melted butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavor in the crust.

The step that matters

Spread the coating evenly to about ¼ inch. A uniform layer bakes at the same rate, so it browns evenly instead of burning in thin spots or staying pale in thick ones.

“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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