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Curing Virginia Hams

Contains saltpeter, which should be used with caution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Curing Virginia Hams

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Trim the flank of the ham closer and leave the shank longer, cutting off the leg about 1.5 inches below the hock.

  2. Sprinkle the flesh side of the ham with fine saltpeter and let it work in.

  3. Apply fine English salt to the ham and bulk it.

  4. Optionally, rub in a little fine sugar with the salt.

  5. Overhaul the hams in 5 days and again in 10 days to ensure proper curing.

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. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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Method 3

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