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 Meats
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the salt, sugar, and saltpeter mixture well into the meats as they are packed.
Cure hams for 75 days, bacon for 25 days, and tongues and shoulder butts for 25 days.
Store the meats in a cool, dry place during the curing process.
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
- Fine salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cured meat.
- Saltpeter
- Helps preserve the meat's color and inhibits spoilage bacteria during long curing.
The step that matters
Rubbing the cure in evenly as the meats are packed. Salt and saltpeter only preserve the parts they reach, so uneven rubbing leaves spoilage-prone spots. Thorough coverage lets the cure penetrate the meat evenly over the long curing period.
“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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