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Hams Superior to Westphalia

A method of curing hams with salt, sugar, saltpetre, vinegar, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Hams Superior to Westphalia

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and brine

  1. Rub the hams with common salt and let them drain for 3 days.

  2. Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt; rub this mixture all over the hams.

  3. Place the hams rind side down in deep pickling pans, covering them with the salt and sugar mixture for 3 days.

  4. Pour vinegar over the hams.

  5. Turn the hams in the brine daily for 1 month.

Dry and smoke

  1. Drain the hams.

  2. Rub them with bran.

  3. Hang them high in a chimney over a wood fire to smoke for 1 month.

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.

  1. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hams
Provide the meat that is cured, salted, and smoked into a firm, preserved product.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and mellows the flavour of the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat's pink colour and adds to its preservation during curing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the brine, contributing tang and helping preserve the meat.

The step that matters

Turning the hams in the brine daily for 1 month. Salt and cure penetrate unevenly without regular turning, so parts of the ham can stay underseasoned or spoil. Turning keeps the brine in contact with all surfaces.

“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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