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 ↓
How to Cure Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Mix the coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and molasses thoroughly without boiling.
Add enough cold water to cover the hams.
Cure the hams
Pack the hams in a barrel and pour the brine over them.
Weight the hams down with a stone and cover the barrel.
Change the position of the hams weekly for five weeks.
Smoke and store
After five weeks, smoke the hams for three weeks using sawdust and corn‑cobs, or green hickory or maple.
After smoking, wrap the hams in stiff brown paper and sew them in thick cloth.
Hang the hams in a cool, dry place or pack them in barrels with layers of coarse dry salt, powdered charcoal, or clean wood ashes.
Optional boiled brine
For a boiled brine, boil and skim clear 3 gallons of water, 4.5 pounds of salt, 1.5 pounds of brown sugar, 1.5 ounces of saltpetre, 0.5 ounces of saleratus, and 2 quarts of molasses.
Cool the boiled brine and pour it over the meat.
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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Ham + molassestop 38% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it while curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a mild flavour to the cured ham.
The step that matters
Mixing the brine without boiling. The brine must be mixed thoroughly and kept unboiled as instructed, so the salt and saltpetre dissolve evenly and the cure works as intended.
“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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