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To Cure Hams

A method for curing a pork leg using salt, sugar, beer, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and beer work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 316 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Cure Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

  1. Hang the leg of pork for three days.

  2. Beat it with a rolling pin.

  3. Rub in 1 ounce of saltpetre mixed with a small quantity of common salt.

  4. Let it lie overnight.

Pickle and cure

  1. Boil 1 quart of stale strong beer, ½ cup coarse sea salt, ½ cup common salt, and ½ cup brown sugar for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Wipe the ham dry from the salt.

  3. Pour the hot pickle over the ham gradually, rubbing it in as it cools.

  4. Rub and turn the ham daily for a week.

Smoke and finish

  1. Hang it in a wood smoke chimney for two weeks.

  2. Sprinkle black pepper over the bone and into the holes, then hang the ham in a thick paper bag.

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. Pork + beertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beer + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together940 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Sugar + beertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together699 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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

Saltpetre
Helps set and preserve the meat's pink colour during curing.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the pickle.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat as it cures.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat as it cures.
Stale strong beer
Carries the salt and sugar into the meat and adds depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot pickle over the ham. Pouring it on gradually while rubbing it in lets the salt and sugar penetrate evenly. Wiping the ham dry first keeps old salt from clumping on the surface and stops it from curing unevenly.

“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.

More ham curing recipes

Method 7Virginia Method 3 See all 69 →

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