Why it works: Pork and molasses work together. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 825 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Curing Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Cut pork to fit snugly in the packing container.
Ensure the meat is free of animal heat before packing.
Sprinkle 8 pounds of salt evenly over each layer of meat.
Pack the meat in layers until the container is full.
Make the brine
Pour clear water over the meat until all spaces are filled.
Dissolve 4 ounces of saltpetre, 3 pints of molasses or 2 pounds of brown sugar, and 7 pounds of salt in water.
Optionally boil the brine. Skim impurities from the boiled brine. Let the boiled brine cool.
Cure
Pour the dissolved brine over the meat.
Pour the cooled brine over the meat.
Ensure the meat is always covered with brine.
Cure hams and shoulders for 1 to 2 months depending on thickness.
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.
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Pork + molassestop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together825 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork
- Is the meat being cured, becoming firm and preserved as it absorbs salt and brine.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
- Molasses or brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and flavour that balances the sharpness of the salt.
The step that matters
Keep the meat fully covered with brine. Any meat left above the brine can spoil, since salt only protects surfaces it reaches. Keeping every piece submerged ensures even curing throughout the cut.
“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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