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To Cure Hams

This recipe describes curing hams with salt, saltpetre, molasses, and brine, then drying and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and molasses work together. They rank in the top 38% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Cure Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the hams

  1. Mix fine salt, saltpetre, and molasses together.

  2. Rub each ham with the mixture.

  3. Pack hams skin side down in a barrel.

  4. Let them sit for 4 to 5 days, depending on temperature.

  5. Turn the hams over.

  6. Sprinkle with more salt.

  7. Let them sit for 5 more days.

  8. Turn the hams skin side down again.

  9. Add enough brine (5 pounds of salt to 3 gallons of water) to cover the hams.

Dry and smoke

  1. After six weeks, hang the hams.

  2. Dry for five days before smoking.

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. Ham + molassestop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together55 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

Fine salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured hams their pink colour.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and flavour that balances the salt.

“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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