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 Mild Cure for Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Sprinkle the flesh side of the belly with 5 ounces of fine saltpeter per 100 pounds of meat.
Mix 65 pounds of coarse sea salt and 35 pounds of white sugar well.
Cure and pack
Pack the bellies tightly in suitable containers, ensuring they maintain their shape.
Cure the meats for 15 to 25 days before smoking.
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 saltpeter
- Supplies nitrate that helps preserve the pink colour of the cured meat.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while helping to preserve it.
- White sugar
- Balances the salt's sharpness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Packing the bellies tightly. Even contact between the meat and the cure lets salt and sugar penetrate evenly. Gaps can leave some areas under-cured and others overly salty.
“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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