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Sweet Pickle for Bacon and Hams

A preserved ham cured with a sweet pickle mixture of salt, sugar, spices, treacle, and beer, left to cure for weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Pickle for Bacon and Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Mix all ingredients well in a large pan to form a pickle.

Cure the ham

  1. Rub the mixture into the ham every day for half an hour.

  2. Turn the ham in the pickle daily. Baste it.

  3. On the fourth day, pour a thin layer of pickle over the ham.

  4. Warm the pickle.

  5. Pour over the treacle one day after.

  6. Leave the ham in the pickle for 6 to 8 weeks.

  7. Rub it well every day.

Dry and hang

  1. Drain the ham.

  2. Dry the ham thoroughly.

  3. Sprinkle flour all over the ham.

  4. Put it in a canvas bag.

  5. Hang it in the kitchen 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
The meat being cured, which takes on flavour and firmness as the salts penetrate it over weeks.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it the characteristic cured colour.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping to preserve it.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness, softening the savoury cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, depth and colour to the outer surface of the cure.
Black pepper
Adds sharp aromatic heat to the cure.

The step that matters

Leaving the ham in the pickle for 6 to 8 weeks. The cure must fully penetrate the thick joint. Too short a time leaves the centre under-cured and at risk of spoiling, so the ham should be turned and rubbed regularly throughout.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, allspice, pepper, clove, beer, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, allspice, pepper, clove, beer, flour. 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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