Why it works: Pork and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,579 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Berkshire Receipt for Hams
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Rub the pork legs with saltpetre and let them sit for 24 hours.
Mix brown sugar and common salt together.
Rub the hams with the sugar-salt mixture and let them sit for 3 weeks, turning and rubbing the pickle daily.
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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Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,579 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
- Pork legs
- Form the main meat that absorbs the cure and turns firm and sliceable as it cures.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink color.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it during curing.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the pickle daily over 3 weeks. Salt and sugar must reach every part of the meat evenly. Daily turning and rubbing redistributes the cure and draws out moisture, so the ham cures uniformly rather than spoiling or staying salty on the outside and raw near the bone.
“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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