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To Pickle Cheeks of Bacon and Hams

A pickled pork dish cured with salt, sugar, saltpetre, and optional black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and pork 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 ↓

To Pickle Cheeks of Bacon and Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Mix the common salt, coarse sugar, saltpetre, and black pepper (if using) in a bowl.

  2. Rub the mixture thoroughly over the pork.

  3. Place the pork in a container, ensuring it is well covered with the mixture.

  4. Allow the pork to cure for 4 to 5 weeks, depending on the size.

Finish

  1. After curing, drain the pork and proceed with your preferred cooking method.

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 + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Sugar + porktop 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

Common salt
Draws moisture out of the pork and helps preserve the meat during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
Saltpetre
Helps the pork keep its pink colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria during curing.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cure thoroughly over the pork. Salt and saltpetre only work where they touch the meat. Uneven coverage leaves gaps where spoilage can start and the cure penetrates unevenly, so every surface needs an even coat.

“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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