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 ↓
Maine Cultivator
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Mix water, coarse sea salt, fine sea salt, brown sugar, molasses, saltpetre, and pearlash in a large pot.
Boil carefully, skimming off any scum that rises.
Apply
Once the mixture is cold, apply it to the ham.
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 + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 through curing.
- Fine sea salt
- Dissolves quickly to season and help the brine penetrate the meat.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Molasses
- Adds depth, color and a rich sweet flavor to the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Preserves the meat and helps it keep its pink cured color.
- Pearlash
- Alters the brine's alkalinity, aiding the cure's action on the meat.
The step that matters
Skimming the boiling brine. Scum rising during boiling consists of impurities and proteins that can spoil the brine's clarity and flavor. Removing it as it forms keeps the cure clean before it cools and is applied.
“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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