Why it works: Pork and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,579 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Pickle Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Dry cure
Rub the pork pieces well with saltpetre.
In a vessel, layer common salt at the bottom.
Cover each piece of pork with common salt and stack them closely. As the salt melts, add more on top.
Cover the vessel with a coarse cloth, a board, and a weight to keep it down. Keep it covered; it will last the whole year.
Make the quick pickle
For a quick pickle, boil 2 gallons of water with 1 pound of coarse sugar, 1 pound of coarse sea salt, and 6 ounces of saltpetre.
Skim the mixture when cold and pour it over the pork pieces. Place a weight on top to keep it submerged and cover it from air; it will be ready in a week.
If the pickle spoils, boil and skim it again, then pour it back over the pork.
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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Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,579 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork
- Is the meat being preserved, becoming firm and savoury as it cures.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat, seasoning it through the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it a characteristic pink-red colour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the salt with mild sweetness in the quick pickle brine.
The step that matters
Keeping the pork submerged in the pickle. Meat left above the brine can spoil at the surface, so the weight must keep every piece covered and the cover must block air. If the brine spoils, reboiling and skimming it restores its clarity and preserving strength.
“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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