Name: Ham, Salt Pork and Bacon
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 cup finely chopped boiled ham; 2 cups of breadcrumbs; a large piece of ham is best boiled; 54 salt pork; 2 eggs; half bury in the beans; salt; pepper

Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham, Salt Pork and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham and pork

Cook ham in any way in which fresh pork is cooked.
Cut ham in slices 1/4 inch thick or thinner and broil or fry lightly in a pan.
If ham is too salty, soak it a half hour in warm water.
If a large ham is very salt, soak it in cold water for 24 hours.
Put the ham into cold water, bring slowly to a boil, and simmer half a day if the ham is of good size.
A ham may also be baked.
To broil salt pork, slice it thin and freshen it by laying it in cold water overnight or a half hour in warm water.
Broil salt pork till transparent and a delicate brown in color.
Broil bacon without freshening.
Fry salt pork only till transparent, saving the fat; salt pork must be first freshened.
Put pork into cold water, bring slowly to a boil, and simmer from a half to 2 hours, according to size of piece.

Make ham cakes and croquettes

For ham cakes, mix chopped boiled ham, breadcrumbs, eggs, pepper and salt, with enough milk to make quite moist.
Fry ham cakes on a griddle in small spoonfuls, turning them as pancakes.
For the potato version, use mashed potatoes instead of breadcrumbs and fry as above.
For croquettes, mix the ham with little or no milk and make into small balls.
Roll the balls in egg and breadcrumbs, then fry in boiling fat.

Bake the dishes

For ham with eggs, put either mixture into a baking dish and smooth the surface.
Make little hollows in the mixture with the bowl of a spoon.
Bake until hot, then break an egg into each hollow.
Return to the oven until the eggs are set.
For pork and beans, parboil 1 lb salt side pork and score the skin in squares.
Half bury the pork in the beans and bake 2 hours, or till a nice brown.
For pork and potatoes, slice a dozen potatoes thin and slice 1/2 lb fat salt pork.
Layer potatoes and pork in a pudding dish, seasoning with salt and pepper (only a little salt).
Bake covered for a half hour, then uncover and brown.
For pork and apples, slice sour apples round in slices 1/2 inch thick without peeling.
Fry the apple slices with strips of pork or bacon and serve together.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories

46 gProtein

21 gFat

97 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Bean	not in our table	0

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

By Abel, Mary Hinman, b. 1850. 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.

Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + beanstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ham + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the ham cakes and set the baked egg-and-ham dish.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb moisture and give the ham cakes and croquettes a crisp, browned coating.
Boiled ham: Provides the main savoury flavour and the bulk of the ham cakes and croquettes.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savoury flavour; freshening draws out excess salt before cooking.

The step that matters

Freshen salty ham or salt pork before cooking. Salt cured meat stays very salty unless soaked in water first. Soaking draws out surface salt, so the finished dish is not overly salty.

Swap the beans

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

Beansthe original
Peasfits about as well
Sesamefits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ham, pork, egg, pepper. 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.

Pork Cake107 recipes

Roast Pork82 recipes

German Style String Beans7 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Ham, Salt Pork and Bacon