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British American Hams

A large pork leg cured with salt, treacle, saltpetre, sage, garlic, and vinegar, then smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,025 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

British American Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the pork

  1. Rub the coarse sea salt into the leg of pork, covering all parts, and let it sit for 24 hours.

  2. Prepare the pickle by combining common salt, treacle, saltpetre, chopped sage, chopped garlic, and vinegar in a pot.

  3. Boil the mixture and skim it well.

  4. Pour the hot pickle over the meat.

  5. Rub it in thoroughly every day for 10 days.

  6. Turn the meat frequently.

  7. Let it sit for an additional 10 days.

Dry and smoke

  1. Remove the meat from the pickle.

  2. Dry it well.

  3. Hang it to smoke for 3 weeks.

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. Sage + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  4. Pork + garlictop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Pork + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of pork
Provides the large cut of meat that the cure penetrates and the smoke flavours.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and begins the curing process.
Common salt
Seasons the meat and helps preserve it by reducing available moisture.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
Treacle
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavour to the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the pickle, contributing to its preserving and tangy character.

The step that matters

Rubbing the salt in thoroughly every day. Salt must reach every part of the meat evenly. Uneven coverage lets some areas stay under-cured and spoil, while salt penetrates slowly into thick muscle, so daily attention matters.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, garlic, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, garlic, vinegar. 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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