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Receipt for Curing Bacon

A method for curing pork hams into bacon using saltpetre, salt, alum, molasses, pepper, and hickory ashes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Receipt for Curing Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select a hog weighing 130 to 150 lbs, ensuring it is fat and well dressed.

  2. Once the pork is cool, cut it out, rounding the ham and removing the feet below the hock.

Cure

  1. Rub 1 tsp saltpetre on both sides of each ham, then salt well with equal parts fine salt and ground alum salt.

  2. Pack the pieces skin side down on a platform and let them cure for 5 to 6 weeks.

Coat and smoke

  1. After curing, insert strings securely in the fat end through the skin, brush off the salt, and apply a paste of equal parts common molasses and black pepper to the flesh side.

  2. Coat both sides with a heavy layer of strong hickory ashes.

  3. Hang the hams to smoke with hickory or red oak wood over a moderate fire for 8 to 10 weeks.

Store

  1. Before warm weather, take down the hams, examine them without scraping, and place them in bags that fit closely.

  2. Sew the bags shut and keep the meat in a dark place until needed.

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. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  2. Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ham + molassestop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps the meat keep its pink color and cured flavor.
Fine salt
Draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, preserving the meat during curing.
Common molasses
Adds sweetness and a sticky base that helps the pepper paste cling to the meat.
Black pepper
Adds sharp aroma and spice that contrasts with the sweet molasses paste.

The step that matters

Cure evenly for 5 to 6 weeks. Salt draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth. If the salt does not reach every part of the ham during the cure, unsalted areas can spoil.

“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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