Name: Cure for Ham and Dried Beef
Ingredients: 1 pound rock salt; 1 pound common salt; 1 pint molasses; 1 ounce black pepper; 1 ounce saltpeter; 18 pounds meat

Why it works: Pepper and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cure for Ham and Dried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

Combine rock salt, common salt, molasses, black pepper, and saltpeter in a bowl.

Cure the meat

Rub the mixture into the meat every day in a tub.
Turn the meat over daily.

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.

Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together897 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + meattop 37% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together441 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Rock salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
Common salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and helps balance the harshness of the salt.
Saltpeter: Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic color.
Meat: The main ingredient that absorbs the cure and is preserved by it.

“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.