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Pickle for Curing Bacon

A brine mixture used to cure bacon, made with water, salt, sugar, molasses, saltpetre, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pickle for Curing Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the brine

  1. In a large container, combine the water, coarse sea salt, sugar, molasses, and saltpetre. Stir well.

  2. Rub the thick part of the ham, shoulder, or middling with a little salt.

Cure the meat

  1. Pack the meat in a clean barrel, starting with the hams, then the shoulders, and finally the middlings.

  2. Pour the brine over the meat. If it doesn't cover the meat completely, make more brine using the same proportions.

  3. Let the meat sit in the brine for 4 to 7 weeks, depending on size.

Finish the meat

  1. After curing, drain the meat and sprinkle pepper around the bone.

  2. Smoke the meat with hickory wood or allow it to dry in the air, according to your preference.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while preserving it during curing.
Sugar
Balances the salt's harshness and adds sweetness to the cured flavour.
Molasses
Adds depth, colour and a mild sweetness to the cured surface.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keeps its colour pink during long curing.

The step that matters

Covering the meat completely with brine. Any meat left above the brine line can spoil or cure unevenly, because salt and curing agents only penetrate the parts they fully contact. Make extra brine in the same proportions so every piece stays submerged for the full curing time.

“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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