Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Make a brine strong enough to float a potato by dissolving ¼ lb saltpetre in warm water and adding enough sugar to make it slightly sweet.
Soak the hams in the brine for 10 to 12 days.
Remove the hams and let them dry thoroughly.
Smoke and store
Smoke the hams until they are a deep brown.
Wrap the hams in cotton cloth or brown paper.
Pack the hams in a box or barrel with enough coarse salt to completely cover them.
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 + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hams
- Provide the meat that is cured, smoked and preserved in this dish.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long cure.
- Sugar
- Adds a slight sweetness that balances the saltiness of the brine.
The step that matters
Soaking the hams in the brine for 10 to 12 days. The brine must fully penetrate the meat for even curing and preservation. Too short a soak leaves the centre under-cured, while the long soak relies on salt and saltpetre to keep the meat safe.
“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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