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Standard Sweet Pickled Hams

A method for preserving ham in a sweet pickle using salt, syrup, saltpetre, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and syrup work together. They rank in the top 44% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Standard Sweet Pickled Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the ham short and round at the butt.

  2. Face the ham and cut the shank off above the hock joint to expose the marrow.

  3. Ensure the ham weighs between 12 and 20 pounds.

Pack and cover

  1. Pack 300 pounds of ham in each tierce with 22 pounds of salt, 3 quarts of syrup, and 12 ounces of saltpetre.

  2. Fill the tierces with water or sweet pickle as per the standard given.

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 + syruptop 44% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15 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

Ham
Is the meat being cured, so its size and trim determine how evenly the brine penetrates.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, balancing the salt's sharpness in the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the cured color and flavor of the meat during long curing.

The step that matters

Pack 300 pounds of ham in each tierce with 22 pounds of salt, 3 quarts of syrup, and 12 ounces of saltpetre.. The salt, syrup, and saltpetre must be measured against the ham weight. Too little salt risks spoilage, while too much makes the meat unpalatably salty. Even packing ensures the cure reaches every part of the meat.

“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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