Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
To Cure Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Salt and season
Sprinkle the ham with a little coarse sea salt and let it sit for 1 day.
Rub the ham with ground black pepper and pounded saltpetre.
Let it sit for another day.
Rub in 1 pound of coarse sea salt.
Pour 1 pound of treacle over the ham after 2 hours.
Cure
Let it cure for 3 weeks to 1 month, turning and rubbing it daily.
Soak and hang
Soak the ham in cold water for 24 hours.
Hang the ham in a chimney where wood or turf is burned for 2 weeks.
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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Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and helps preserve the meat during curing.
- Pounded saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and keep its colour.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour and helps the surface darken.
- Ground black pepper
- Adds aroma and a sharp, spicy flavour to the cured surface.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the ham daily during the cure. Salt and cure must reach every part of the meat evenly. Skipping the daily turning and rubbing lets brine pool on one side, so parts of the ham may cure unevenly or spoil.
“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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