Name: Rural Meat Curing
Ingredients: 91% lbs. of coarse sea salt; 1 1/5 ounces of saltpeter; 4 ounces of sugar; 100 lbs. of meat; 5 1/4 gallons of water

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 ↓

Rural Meat Curing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

Mix the salt, saltpeter, sugar, and water in a large container.
Ensure the mixture is chilled to 34°F (1°C) before use.

Cure the meat

Thoroughly cover the meat with the chilled brine.
Cure the meat at a temperature no higher than 38°F (3°C).

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.

Sugar + meattop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while helping to preserve it.
Saltpeter: Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a pink cured colour.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the salt and supports flavour development in the cured meat.
Meat: The protein that absorbs the brine, which seasons and preserves it during curing.

The step that matters

Keep the cure cold. The brine must be chilled before use and the meat must stay at or below 38°F (3°C) during curing. Cold temperatures slow the growth of spoilage and harmful bacteria, so a warm cure can let the meat spoil before the salt and nitrite preserve it.

“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.