Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Yorkshire Recipe for Curing Hams and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Fast the pig for 24 hours before killing.
After killing and scalding, hang the pig for 12 hours before cutting.
Cure the meat
Rub the sugar and saltpetre into the fleshy parts of the pork.
Remove any blood and broken vessels with a fork.
Apply salt to the exposed parts, especially the shank-ends of the hams.
Warm the salt slightly before use and add it gradually as it dissolves.
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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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it by slowing spoilage.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing and adds a cured flavour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the cure.
The step that matters
Applying the salt evenly. Salt must reach all exposed and thick areas, especially the shank-ends of the hams, or those spots can spoil. Adding it gradually, as it dissolves, helps it penetrate the meat evenly instead of pooling on the surface.
“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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