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To Cure Scotch Hams

A method of curing hams with sugar, molasses, salt, saltpetre, pepper, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

To Cure Scotch Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the bones from the hams carefully.

  2. Mix equal parts of sugar and molasses and smear it over the meat.

  3. Let it sit for 30 hours.

Cure in pickle

  1. Prepare a pickle with salt and water strong enough to float an egg, adding 2 ounces of dissolved saltpetre.

  2. Submerge the meat in the pickle for 9 days.

  3. Add another 2 ounces of saltpetre.

  4. Keep the meat in the pickle for an additional 5 days.

Finish and serve

  1. Hang it up for 24 hours.

  2. Roll the meat in a mixture of ground white pepper and cinnamon, then tie it tightly in a round shape.

  3. Slice as needed for boiling or broiling.

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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. White pepper + cinnamontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together122 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mutton + cinnamontop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together269 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Hams
The main meat that is boned, cured, seasoned and sliced for cooking.
Sugar and molasses
Add sweetness and moisture to the surface of the meat during the initial rest.
Salt
Seasons the pickle and draws moisture out of the meat while it cures.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its pink colour during the long cure.
Ground white pepper
Adds sharp, warm seasoning to the outside of the cured meat.
Cinnamon
Adds aromatic warmth to the outside of the cured meat.

The step that matters

Pickle strength. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg, because too weak a salt solution will not preserve the meat and may let it spoil during the long soak.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, molasses, cinnamon):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, molasses, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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