Why it works: Ham and laurel work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 609 recipes. Both carry anethole, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓
Westphalia Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Place hams in deep tubs.
Cover with layers of coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and laurel leaves.
Leave for 4-5 days.
Cover with strong brine.
Soak and smoke
After 3 weeks, remove and soak in well-water for 12 hours.
Expose to smoke from burning juniper-bush for 3 weeks.
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.
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Ham + laureltop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together609 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hams
- The meat being cured and smoked, so the cure and smoke flavour it throughout.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing, helping preserve it.
- Saltpetre
- Supports the curing colour and helps preserve the meat during long curing.
- Laurel leaves
- Adds a subtle aromatic flavour to the cure.
- Juniper-bush
- Burned for smoke that gives the ham its smoky aroma.
The step that matters
Covering with strong brine. The brine must fully cover the hams so the salt penetrates evenly; any exposed meat can spoil or cure unevenly during the long cure.
“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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