Name: Super-excellent Bacon
Ingredients: 14 pounds well-fed pork; 1 ounce fine saltpetre; 3 ounces very brown sugar; 8 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), dried and pounded; 4 ounces common salt; 1 pound treacle; 1 ounce ground black pepper (optional); 3 ounces bruised juniper berries (optional)

Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Super-excellent Bacon

Ingredients

14 pounds well-fed pork
1 ounce fine saltpetre
3 ounces very brown sugar
8 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), dried and pounded
4 ounces common salt
1 pound treacle
1 ounce ground black pepper (optional)
3 ounces bruised juniper berries (optional)

Directions

Cure

Rub the pork with saltpetre and brown sugar, covering all parts.
Let it sit for several hours.
Cover the meat with the mixture of coarse sea salt and common salt.
After four days, add treacle and turn the hams daily, basting with the pickle for one month.

Dry and smoke

Hang the hams to drain overnight.
Wrap them in brown paper.
Smoke the hams for one month.

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.

Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,579 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Pork: The meat being cured, which becomes the bacon as it dries and smokes.
Saltpetre: Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pinkish colour.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.
Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the meat, slowing spoilage and firming its texture.
Common salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
Treacle: Adds sweetness, dark colour and molasses flavour to the cure.

The step that matters

Covering all parts of the meat with the cure. Salt and saltpetre must reach every area to preserve the meat evenly. Uncovered spots can spoil, so the cure must cover all surfaces, and turning and basting daily keeps the pickle in contact with the meat.

“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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Super-excellent Bacon