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 ↓
Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Hang the hams for a few days if the weather allows.
Make and apply the pickle
Mix black pepper, allspice, saltpetre, coarse sea salt, sugar, and beer in a pot.
Boil the mixture and pour it hot over the hams.
Cure and finish
Turn the hams in the pickle for three weeks.
Let the hams drain, brush with pyroligneous acid, and sprinkle with sharps, bran, or pollard.
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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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + beertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together940 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Allspice + beertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together108 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Sugar + beertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together699 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Allspice + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,938 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Saltpetre
- Gives cured meat its pink colour and helps preserve it during long curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the ham.
- Sugar
- Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
- Beer
- Carries the dissolved seasonings and adds a little moisture and malty flavour to the pickle.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, aromatic heat to the outside of the ham.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the cured flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the pickle before pouring it over the hams. Boiling dissolves the salt, sugar and saltpetre fully and helps the seasonings blend into the liquid, so the cure penetrates evenly. Pouring it hot also warms the brine's effect on the meat's surface and helps reduce surface microbes before the long cure.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, beer):
- Gingerfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, beer. 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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