Why it works: Sugar and pork 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 ↓
The Manner of Curing Westphalia Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Boil the water, coarse sea salt, white salt, petre salt, saltpetre, coarse sugar, and socho together until well mixed.
Let the mixture cool.
Cure and smoke
Submerge the pork in the cooled pickle and let it cure for two weeks.
Remove the pork and dry it over sawdust smoke.
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.
-
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
- Pork
- Absorbs the salt and cure, becoming firm, seasoned and preserved as it dries.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while helping preserve it.
- Coarse sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the salt and mellows the flavour of the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Curing agent that helps the meat keep a pink colour and resist spoilage during the long cure.
The step that matters
Let the pickle cool before adding the pork. Putting meat into hot brine can partly cook its surface and cure it unevenly, so the pickle should be cool before the pork goes in.
“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.
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.