Name: Cupjng Hams
Ingredients: 9 pounds coarse salt; 2 pounds allspice; 3.5 pounds brown sugar; 2 ounces saltpetre; 1.5 ounces baking soda; 6 gallons water; 115 pounds ham

Why it works: Allspice and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,938 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Cupjng Hams

Ingredients

Directions

In a large container, dissolve the coarse salt, allspice, brown sugar, saltpetre, and baking soda in the water.
Submerge the hams in the brine, ensuring they are fully covered.
Allow the hams to cure in the brine for the desired time.
Remove hams from brine and rinse before cooking.

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.

Allspice + sugartop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,938 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Allspice + hamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together359 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Sugar + hamtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,084 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).