Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Cure Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the ham with saltpetre and let it sit overnight.
Rub in the coarse sea salt and common salt, and let it sit for three to four days.
Mix the sugar, black pepper, and Jamaica pepper, then spread this mixture over the ham.
When the salt has melted and there is plenty of brine, baste the ham two to three times a day.
Turn and rub the ham in the brine two to three times a week for three weeks.
Dry
Drain the ham well and hang it in a dry place.
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.
-
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 the ham keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour during long curing.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt for curing, drawing moisture out and seasoning the meat through the brine.
- Very coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds sweetness to the cured surface.
- Black pepper
- Adds aromatic heat and flavour to the outside of the ham.
The step that matters
Rub in the salts and keep the ham turned in brine. Salt must penetrate evenly and the brine must cover the meat. Uneven salting lets spoilage bacteria grow in thick or unturned areas, so turning and basting matter throughout the cure.
“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.
More ham curing recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.