Why it works: Sugar and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Ham, Pickle for
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine 6 quarts water, 4 pounds coarse sea salt, ¾ pound sugar, and 3 ounces saltpetre in a large saucepan.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes and skim thoroughly.
Allow the brine to cool, then pour it over the ham.
Pickle the ham
Rub the ham with salt and let it drain for 24 hours before submerging it in the brine.
Ensure the liquid completely covers the ham.
Let the ham pickle for about 3 weeks.
Boil the pickle every 2 to 3 months.
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 + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while curing it in the brine.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the ham's pink colour during long curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness of the brine and adds mild sweetness to the ham.
- Ham
- The main meat that the brine penetrates and cures over the pickling period.
The step that matters
Keep the ham fully submerged in the brine. Any part of the ham exposed to air can spoil or dry out, and cured meat needs an even salt concentration throughout to cure safely.
“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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