Name: Super-excellent Bacon
Ingredients: 14 pounds well-fed pork; 1 ounce saltpetre (fine powder); 3 ounces very brown sugar; 8 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), dried and pounded; 4 ounces common salt; 1 pound treacle; 1 ounce ground black pepper (optional); 3 ounces bruised juniper berries (optional)

Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Super-excellent Bacon

Ingredients

14 pounds well-fed pork
1 ounce saltpetre (fine powder)
3 ounces very brown sugar
8 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), dried and pounded
4 ounces common salt
1 pound treacle
1 ounce ground black pepper (optional)
3 ounces bruised juniper berries (optional)

Directions

Cure

Rub the pork with saltpetre and brown sugar, and let it sit for several hours.
Cover the meat with the mixture of coarse sea salt and common salt.
After four days, add treacle.
Turn the hams daily, basting with the pickle for one month.

Drain, wrap and smoke

Hang the hams to drain overnight.
Wrap them in brown paper.
Smoke the hams for one 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.

Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,401 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,579 recipes

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

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Forms the meat that absorbs the cure and becomes the finished bacon.
Saltpetre: Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured pork its characteristic pink colour.
Coarse sea salt: Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while slowing spoilage.
Common salt: Adds salt that penetrates the meat, seasoning it and helping preserve it.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the salt and softens its harshness.
Treacle: Adds sweetness, depth of flavour and a darker colour to the cure.

The step that matters

Turn the hams daily, basting with the pickle. Regular turning and basting keep the cure in even contact with every surface, so salt and sugar penetrate evenly and the thick cut is preserved throughout rather than spoiling at the centre or surface.

“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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Super-excellent Bacon