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To Sugar-cure Meat

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Sugar-cure Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Mix the salt, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and saltpetre in a large container.

  2. Salt the meat in the usual way, ensuring the brine can run off.

Cure

  1. Cover the container well to exclude air and let it sit for six weeks.

Finish

  1. After six weeks, remove the meat and wash it well with hot water.

  2. Hang the meat to dry completely.

  3. Once dry, smoke the meat to your taste.

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. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Pork
The main meat that is preserved and flavoured by the cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during the long cure.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic cured colour.

The step that matters

Covering the container to exclude air. Sealing the container keeps air away from the meat during the six-week cure, limiting spoilage and surface oxidation. Letting the brine drain off keeps the meat from sitting in liquid that could spoil it.

“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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