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Curing Hams

This recipe describes a method for curing hams with salt, molasses, saltpetre, brine, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and apple work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Curing Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the hams for a week to ten days in a cool, dry place.

Cure

  1. Mix the salt, molasses, and saltpetre in a bowl.

  2. Rub the mixture well into the hams, focusing on the bones and recesses.

  3. Repeat the rubbing process until all the mixture is used.

  4. Let the hams rest for two to three days.

  5. Submerge the hams in brine for three weeks.

Dry and smoke

  1. Soak the hams in cold water for eight hours.

  2. Hang the hams to dry in a kitchen or convenient place for a week or more.

  3. Smoke the hams for three to five days, keeping the hock down to retain juices.

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. Corn + appletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Molasses + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together970 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + appletop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it while curing.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured hams their characteristic pink color.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and flavor that balances the salt.

The step that matters

Soak the hams in cold water for eight hours. Soaking draws off excess surface salt and cure. Skipping it or soaking too long can leave the ham overly salty, while the cure must be fully removed before drying.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, egg, corn):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, corn. 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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