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Baked Ham

A ham baked with a paste of flour, bran, and dripping, simmered with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and simmer

  1. Soak the ham in cold water overnight.

  2. Scrape and wash the ham well.

  3. In an iron pot, combine the ham with onion, carrots, celery, parsley, cloves, peppercorns, mace, garlic, and moist sugar.

  4. Cover with water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  5. Simmer for two hours.

Wrap and bake

  1. Make a paste by rubbing the dripping into the flour and bran, adding enough hot water to form a firm paste.

  2. Roll the paste out to about 1 inch thick, wrap it around the ham, and press it to adhere.

  3. Place the wrapped ham on a tin dish and bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 6½ hours.

Serve

  1. If serving cold, let it cool in the paste before cracking it open and removing the skin.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

York ham
The main joint, which the gentle simmering and baking cook through while keeping it moist.
Flour
Forms the firm paste that encloses the ham and holds its shape during baking.
Dripping
Fat rubbed into the flour, making the paste tender and rich rather than brittle.
Bran
Adds bulk to the paste so it sets firm and can be rolled out and wrapped.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.

The step that matters

Baking at a gentle oven temperature. Baking at a low temperature for a long time lets the ham heat through gradually, so the meat stays moist and tender instead of drying out and toughening. The paste acts as an insulating case that protects the surface.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, celery, turnip, parsley, clove, garlic, sugar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, celery, turnip, parsley, clove, garlic, sugar. 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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