Name: Sweet Pickle for Bacon and Hams
Ingredients: 16 lbs ham; 2 oz saltpetre; 1 lb common salt; 1 lb coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Sweet Pickle for Bacon and Hams

Ingredients

16 lbs ham
2 oz saltpetre
1 lb common salt
1 lb coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

Place the ham in a large pan.
Mix the saltpetre, common salt, and coarse sea salt together.
Rub the mixture thoroughly over the ham.
Cover the ham and let it cure for the recommended time.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre: Preserves the meat and helps give cured ham its pink colour.
Common salt: Draws out moisture and seasons the ham during curing.
Coarse sea salt: Adds salt that draws out moisture and seasons the ham during curing.

“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.