Name: To Cure Hams, &C
Ingredients: 1 ham; coarse sea salt; black pepper; dry sawdust, malt-dust, or bran; 1 pint vinegar; 2 ounces coarse sea salt

Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Cure Hams, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the ham with coarse sea salt and let it sit for two days.
Turn the ham, rub it with brine, and baste it several times daily.
Repeat this for a month for a large ham or three weeks for a small one.
After curing, drain the ham and wash off the salt with cold water.
Dry the ham with a cloth and rub black pepper inside and at the knuckle.
Hang the ham to dry or send it to a baker.
Once hard, store it in a chest with dry sawdust, malt-dust, or bran until the day before cooking.
Soak the ham in cold water before cooking.

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

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.

Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together365 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + malttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together189 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).