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To Smoke Hams

This recipe describes smoking and brining hams for preservation.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Smoke Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Smoke and brine

  1. Smoke a barrel over a pan of coals for 6 to 8 hours for strong smoke, or 4 hours for milder smoke.

  2. Prepare a brine by mixing salt, saltpeter, brown sugar, and optional seasonings.

Cure the hams

  1. Cover the hams with the brine in the smoked barrel.

  2. Place a weight on the hams to keep them submerged in the brine.

  3. After 4 weeks, the hams are ready for use.

Care in hot weather

  1. In hot weather, scald and skim the brine, then pour it over the hams again if necessary.

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. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

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

  3. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it during curing.
Saltpeter
Helps the cured meat keep its pink colour and slows spoilage during curing.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness and depth to the flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the hams fully submerged under the brine. Weighting the hams keeps every surface in contact with the brine. Exposed areas cure unevenly and are more likely to spoil 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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