Name: To Cure Hams and Shoulders
Ingredients: hams; 1 tablespoon finely powdered saltpetre; coarse sea salt; brown sugar; molasses barrel; strong pickle (enough to float an egg); hickory ashes

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Cure Hams and Shoulders

Ingredients

Directions

Rub each ham with 1 tablespoon of saltpetre for a few minutes.
Rub the hams well with coarse sea salt and brown sugar.
Let the hams lie on a board for three days to draw off the blood.
Sprinkle the bottom of a molasses barrel with salt and place the hams skin side down.
Continue layering with salt until the barrel is full.
Make a strong pickle that will float an egg and pour it over the hams.
Cover the barrel and let the hams remain in pickle for five weeks.
After five weeks, hang the hams with the hock down to preserve the juice.
Shoulders will not need to be in pickle as long; they can be hung up in four weeks.
Jowls will be ready to hang up in two weeks.
Smoke the hams three times a week until done, avoiding over-smoking to prevent hardness.
Before warm weather, take the hams down and rub them well with hickory ashes.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,084 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,879 recipes