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Curing Hams and Bacon

This recipe uses saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Curing Hams and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil water and dissolve all ingredients in it.

  2. Skim off any scum that forms on the surface.

  3. Cool the pickle to a low temperature.

  4. Ensure the meat is thoroughly chilled before placing it in the pickle.

  5. Cover the meat completely with the pickle and place a loose cover on top.

  6. Add a heavy weight, like a stone, on top of the cover.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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