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Bacon Cheeks, to Pickle

Pickled bacon cheeks are cured with salt, sugar, and saltpetre, then left to cure for up to a month.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Bacon Cheeks, to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Blend the salt, sugar, and saltpetre together.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture generously over the cheeks and let them sit overnight.

  3. Drain the cheeks well and rub in the blended ingredients.

  4. Turn and rub the cheeks often for three weeks to a month until ready to use.

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. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheeks
The meat that is cured and becomes firm and seasoned through the salt cure.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the cured meat and sets its characteristic pink colour.

The step that matters

Turning and rubbing the cheeks over the full curing period. Salt and cure must reach evenly through the meat. Regular turning and rubbing keeps the cure in contact with every surface, so the curing is even rather than patchy or spoiled at the edges.

“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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