Why it works: Sugar and meat 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 Pumping Pickle Formula
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Dissolve the saltpetre and sugar in 12 gallons of water to create a brine.
If using for export meats, add the boracic acid.
Cure the meat
Agitate the mixture well while pumping it into the meat.
Use 5 to 6 gallons of this brine for every 300 pounds of meat.
Pack the meat in a 50°F (10°C) pickle for curing.
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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Sugar + meattop 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
- Saltpetre
- Supplies nitrate that helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the salty, preserving flavour of the cure.
The step that matters
Agitate the mixture well while pumping it into the meat. The salts and sugar must be evenly dispersed in the brine so the cure penetrates the meat uniformly. Undissolved or unevenly mixed brine can leave some areas under-cured and others too salty, which affects both safety and flavour.
“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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