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 ↓
A Reliable Dry Salt Cure
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Mix the fine English salt, granulated sugar, and pulverized saltpetre thoroughly.
Cure the meat
Rub each piece of meat well with the mixture as it is packed.
Cure hams for 75 days and smaller cuts for 25 days.
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 protein being preserved; the cure penetrates its surface and draws out moisture.
- Fine english salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and slows bacterial growth, preserving it.
- Granulated sugar
- Balances the harshness of the salt and adds mild sweetness.
- Pulverized saltpetre
- Converts to nitrite in the meat, helping preserve it and set its pink colour.
The step that matters
Rub each piece of meat well. The mixture must reach every surface as it is packed. Spots with too little cure can spoil, and uneven salting leaves the meat unevenly preserved.
“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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