Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Pickle a Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Boil all ingredients together.
Pickle the ham
Pour the hot mixture over the ham.
Let the ham sit in the pickle for one month, turning it every day.
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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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the ham by inhibiting spoilage microbes.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the ham and gives the cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sugar or treacle
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness and saltiness of the pickle.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that contributes to the sharp flavour and helps inhibit spoilage.
The step that matters
Keeping the ham fully submerged and turning it daily. Salt and cure penetrate meat unevenly, so turning the ham each day ensures every surface stays in contact with the brine and cures at a similar rate, reducing the risk of spoiled or unevenly cured spots.
“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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