Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Method for Curing Meats
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Boil salt, sugar, and saltpetre with enough water in a metallic vessel until impurities form a light scum on the surface.
Skim off the impurities as they appear during boiling.
Allow the liquid to cool to normal temperature.
Pack and cover
Cut the meat into desired shapes and sizes.
Pack the meat into cleaned tierces, placing larger cuts like hams and shoulders at the bottom.
Pour the cooled pickle over the meat in the tierces.
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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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- The main food being preserved; its texture and flavour are set by the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, preserving the meat and seasoning it.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the salt, adding mild sweetness.
- Saltpetre
- Supplies nitrate that helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its pink colour.
The step that matters
Skimming the boiling pickle. Impurities that rise as scum can spoil the cure and flavour of the pickle, so they must be removed as they form during boiling.
“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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