Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Another Mode of Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the salt, saltpetre, sugar, and molasses together.
Rub the mixture well into the pork.
Cure
After nine days, turn the hams over, placing those on top at the bottom.
Rub the hams often with the salt mixture while in the tub.
After three weeks, remove 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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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Pork + molassestop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together825 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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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
- The meat being cured, which the salt mixture penetrates and preserves.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the cured meat keep its pink colour and resist spoilage.
- Sugar
- Balances the harshness of the salt and adds mild sweetness.
- Molasses
- Adds depth of flavour and some moisture to the cure.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture well into the pork. Salt and cure can only penetrate the meat where they touch it, so thorough rubbing helps the cure reach all surfaces evenly and prevents spoilage in spots that were missed.
“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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