Why it works: Pork and sugar 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 ↓
To Prepare the Fat of Bacon for Larding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fat
Cut the fat from the pork and rub it with salt, using 1 pound of salt for every 10 pounds of lard.
Place the fat in a cellar on a board, layering pieces on top of each other.
Put a board on top and weigh it down with stones to press the lard.
Let it sit for at least 2 weeks in salt.
Afterward, hang it in a dry place.
Cure the bacon
For bacon, mix the coarse sea salt, brown sugar, saltpetre, and rock salt.
Rub the mixture on both sides of the pork.
Lay the pork on a sloped wooden table and place a board and weight on top.
Position a vessel underneath to catch the brine.
Turn the pork every 2-3 days and baste it with the brine.
Let it cure for 3 weeks, then hang it up to smoke for 24 hours.
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 + sugartop 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 fat
- Forms the lard itself, which is pressed, salted and preserved.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the pork while it cures.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured pork its characteristic pink colour.
- Finely pounded rock salt
- Speeds even salt penetration into the pork during curing.
The step that matters
Pressing and turning during cure. Weight pressing and regular turning with basting keep the brine evenly distributed and the pork covered, so no area spoils or cures unevenly.
“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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