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Curing Smithfield Hams

A method for curing Smithfield hams using salt, saltpeter, pepper, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Curing Smithfield Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the hams

  1. Place the hams in a large tray of fine salt.

  2. Sprinkle the flesh surface with saltpeter until it appears white, using 4 to 6 ounces per 100 pounds of hams.

  3. Cover the entire surface with fine salt.

  4. Pack the hams skin-side down in piles no more than 3 feet high.

  5. Let the hams cure for three days.

  6. Break bulk and re-salt with fine salt.

  7. Allow the hams to cure for one day for each pound of weight.

Wash, pepper and smoke

  1. Wash the hams with tepid water until clean and partially dry.

  2. Rub the entire surface with finely ground black pepper.

  3. Hang the hams in the smokehouse and smoke gradually over 30 to 40 days.

  4. Repepper the hams to guard against vermin and bag them.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat as it cures.
Saltpeter
Gives the cured meat its pink-white colour and helps preserve it.
Finely ground black pepper
Adds aroma and a sharp flavour, and deters insects on the surface.

The step that matters

Re-salting after the first cure. Breaking bulk and re-salting evens out salt distribution through the hams. Uneven salt lets some areas spoil or cure unevenly, so the full surface must be covered and the piles kept low.

“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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