Why it works: Pork and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,638 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
To Pickle Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Mix and pound fine the saltpetre, coarse sugar, saltprunel, and a little common salt.
Sprinkle the pork with common salt.
Let the pork drain for 24 hours.
Cure and store
Rub the pork with the salt mixture.
Pack the pork tightly in a small deep tub.
Fill the spaces with common salt.
Place large pebbles on the pork to keep it submerged in the pickle.
Store the pork in a cool, air-tight place; it will last for up to two years.
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 + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Sugar + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + porktop 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
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the pork and sets its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds sweetness to the cured meat.
- Sal-prunel
- Contributes to the cure's preserving action and flavour as part of the salt mixture.
- Pork
- The main meat being preserved by salting and curing.
The step that matters
Rubbing the pork with the salt mixture. The cure must reach the meat evenly, since salt and saltpetre draw moisture out and preserve only the parts they penetrate. Uneven coverage leaves spots that spoil, so every surface needs thorough contact with the mixture.
“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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