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Curing of Hams and Bacon

A method for curing hams and bacon using salt, saltpetre, and brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Curing of Hams and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carcass

  1. Hang the hog carcass overnight to cool.

  2. Lay the carcass on a strong bench or stool.

  3. Separate the head from the body at the neck, close behind the ears.

  4. Remove the feet and internal fat.

  5. Divide the carcass into two sides: cut the ribs about an inch from the spine on each side and remove the spine with attached rib ends, the internal flesh between the spine and the kidneys, and the flesh above it along the whole length of the sides.

  6. The portion cut out forms a wedge; its interior breadth is the breadth of the spine plus about an inch of ribs on each side, reduced to about half an inch at the exterior skin along the back.

  7. Dissect the breast-bone and the first anterior rib from the side.

  8. When hams are cured separately from the sides, cut them to include the hock-bone, similar to London haunch cutting.

Salt and cure

  1. Rub the skin side of the pork with a mixture of fifty parts salt to one part saltpetre in powder, and incise parts of the ham or flitch and cover the inside of the flitch with the same.

  2. Arrange salted bacon in pairs of flitches with insides together, pile one pair above another on slightly inclined benches, and provide spouts or troughs to convey brine to receivers in the floor of the salting-house.

  3. Leave the bacon in this state for a fortnight, which is sufficient for flitches cut from carcasses weighing less than 15.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

58Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Salt
Draws moisture out of the pork and preserves it while the cure develops.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the cured meat and gives it its characteristic colour.

The step that matters

Rubbing the salt and saltpetre mixture onto the pork. Salt draws moisture out and into the meat, and it must be applied evenly to every surface and into the incisions so the cure penetrates uniformly and the meat keeps well.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, clove, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, clove, 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.

More ham curing recipes

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