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Pickle for Ham

A method of preserving ham by boiling a brine of salt, sugar, ale, spices, and saltpetre, then smoking and storing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickle for Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Combine saltpetre, coarse sea salt, common salt, coarse sugar, strong ale, black pepper, and allspice in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture together.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the hams.

Cure and smoke

  1. Turn the hams twice a day in the pickle for six weeks.

  2. Smoke the hams for three weeks.

Store

  1. Store the hams in canvas bags until needed.

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.

  1. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
Strong ale
Adds liquid to the pickle and contributes malty depth of flavour.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat to the cure.

The step that matters

Turn the hams twice a day. The pickle must reach every part of the meat evenly. Regular turning keeps the brine in contact with all surfaces, so the cure penetrates uniformly and no area is left under-salted or spoiling.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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