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To Cure Beef Hams

This recipe describes curing beef hams with salt, molasses, and optional saltpetre over several weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and molasses work together. They rank in the top 38% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Cure Beef Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hams

  1. Cut the hams at the hip joint.

  2. Rub the hams with coarse sea salt.

Cure

  1. Let the hams sit for two weeks in moderate weather or three weeks in very cold weather.

  2. After salting, mix the molasses and saltpetre together.

  3. Rub the hams well with the molasses and saltpetre mixture.

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. Ham + molassestop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hams
The main meat, which the salt and molasses penetrate and preserve during curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and penetrates the meat, seasoning it and helping to preserve it.
Common molasses
Adds sweetness and moisture to the surface, and gives the cured meat a dark colour and rich flavour.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its cured colour and adds further preservation during the long rest.

The step that matters

Allow the full salting period. Salt needs time to move slowly through thick meat. Sitting for the full two or three weeks lets it reach the centre, so the ham is evenly cured and preserved rather than salty outside and raw within.

“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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