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To Sugar-cure Meat

A method for curing pork with salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, and saltpetre over six weeks, then smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Sugar-cure Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Let meat get perfectly cool before salting.

  2. Take 1000 pounds meat (pork).

  3. Take sixteen quarts salt, three pounds brown sugar, one pound cayenne pepper, and one-quarter 24 Grayville Cook Book pounds saltpetre.

  4. Mix well and salt in the usual way, in a box, so that the brine can run off.

  5. Leave just six weeks.

  6. Take up and wash well with hot water.

  7. Hang up and when perfectly dry, smoke to suit taste.

  8. Be sure to cover the box well to exclude air.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

57Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the salty bite of the cure.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and aroma to the cured surface.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the pink color and slows bacterial spoilage during curing.

The step that matters

Hang up and when perfectly dry, smoke to suit taste.. Smoke adheres poorly to wet meat, and surface moisture can cause steaming rather than smoking. Drying the surface first lets the smoke form an even color and flavor layer.

“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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