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Prussian Hams

A cured pork leg preserved with saltpetre, sea salt, treacle, herbs, and smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Prussian Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the pork

  1. Rub the pork leg well with saltpetre, coarse sea salt, treacle, marjoram, thyme, and bay leaves.

  2. Continue rubbing and basting the meat for one week, turning it over every day.

  3. Strew common salt over the meat an inch thick.

  4. Let the meat sit until the salt and brine are well mixed.

Make and pour the pickle

  1. Boil the entire pickle.

  2. Pour the hot pickle (but not scalding) over the meat.

  3. Let the meat sit for another fortnight.

Smoke and cool

  1. Smoke the meat for six or seven days, starting with gentle heat for the first six hours.

  2. Cool the smoked meat.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork leg
Is the meat that is cured, smoked and firmed into sliceable ham.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during the long cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, depth of flavour and a darker surface colour.
Thyme
Contributes a savoury, herbal aroma to the meat.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle aromatic, herbal note to the cured meat.

The step that matters

Pour the hot pickle (but not scalding) over the meat.. Hot brine helps dissolve salt and spread it evenly, but scalding temperatures would cook and toughen the outer surface, blocking even penetration of the cure.

“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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