Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Cure Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the meat
Mix 1 lb. of saltpetre, 1 lb. of brown sugar, and 2 ounces of coarsely beaten red pepper with 1 bushel of salt.
Rub the mixture thoroughly over the hams and shoulders, using something harder than your hand.
Stuff around the hocks with an additional handful of saltpetre and red pepper.
Pack the meat completely covered with the salt mixture.
Let the hams cure in salt for 4 weeks, jowls and shoulders for 3 weeks, and middlings for 2 weeks.
Smoke and hang
Wash the hams and shoulders.
Hang them by the large end.
Start smoking the meat the next day.
Make one good smoke every day until the weather becomes mild, around the end of March.
Occasionally examine the meat.
Use the most indifferent pieces first.
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.
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while it cures.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink color.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.
- Red pepper
- Adds heat and aroma to the cure.
The step that matters
Packing the meat completely in the salt mixture. Salt must reach every surface and thick area to cure evenly; any exposed or poorly covered spot can spoil before the salt penetrates.
“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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