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Westmoreland Hams

A large pork leg cured with saltpetre, brine, and smoked, then coated with quick‑lime.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beer and malt work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Westmoreland Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Rub the pork leg all over with saltpetre and let it sit for 14 hours.

  2. Boil the porter or beer with coarse salt, coarse sugar, and bay salt, then skim the mixture well.

  3. Pour the hot brine over the meat and let it sit in the pickle for 1 month.

  4. Rub the meat and turn it every other day.

Smoke and hang

  1. Remove the ham from the pickle and rub it dry.

  2. Roll the ham in malt dust or oatmeal until it adheres.

  3. Smoke the ham for 3 weeks.

  4. Coat the ham with a paste of quick-lime and hot water.

  5. Let the ham sit for 1 week.

  6. Hang the ham in a dry, cool room.

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. Beer + malttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Pork + beertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Beer + limetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pork + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork leg
Provides the meat that is cured, firmed and preserved over the long process.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat and helps it keep its pink colour while curing.
Coarse salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage in the brine.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
Porter or beer
Forms the liquid base of the brine and adds malty aroma and flavour.
Smoke (in the method)
Adds smoky aroma and flavour and helps the surface dry and preserve the ham.

The step that matters

Turning the meat in the pickle. Salt and cure must reach every part of the meat evenly. Turning it regularly keeps the brine in contact with all surfaces, so uneven curing and spoilage are less likely.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, beer, sugar, malt):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beer, sugar, malt. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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