Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Formulas for Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the ham thoroughly.
In a clean sterilized curing receptacle, combine salt, saltpeter, and sugar.
Cure
Pack the ham in the mixture and fill with water.
Cure the ham for about 75 days at a temperature of 38°F to 40°F (3°C to 4°C).
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 + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the ham and preserves it while curing.
- Saltpeter
- Helps the ham keep its pink color during curing.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.
The step that matters
Keep the ham cold throughout the cure. Curing must stay at a steady low temperature so harmful bacteria cannot grow while the salt and saltpeter penetrate the meat. Temperatures that rise can spoil the ham before the cure is complete.
“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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