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 ↓
Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the ham
Rub 2 teaspoons of saltpetre and 1 pound of brown sugar onto the fleshy side of an 18 lb green ham and around the hock.
Cover the fleshy side with coarse sea salt, ½ inch thick.
Pack the ham in tubs and let it cure for 3 to 6 weeks, depending on size.
Drain, pepper and smoke
Before smoking, remove all the salt and cover the ham with ground black pepper, especially around the bone and hock.
Hang the ham to drain for 2 weeks.
Smoke the ham with green wood for 8 weeks, until the rind is brown.
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
- Saltpetre
- Helps cure the meat and gives it its characteristic pink colour and cured flavour.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the salt and adds sweetness and flavour to the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it during curing.
- Ground black pepper
- Adds sharp aroma and flavour to the outside of the ham before smoking.
The step that matters
Removing the salt before smoking. Salt left on the surface after curing can make the ham overly salty and harsh. Removing it fully before smoking and peppering helps the flavour stay balanced.
“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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