Why it works: Sugar and pork 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 ↓
Kentish Mode Op Cutting Up and Curing a Pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cuts
Set aside the hams and cheeks for curing separately.
Salt the feet, ears, tail, and eye-parts of the head for immediate eating.
Reserve the blade-bones, ends of the loins, and ribs for sausage meat, and the loin and spare ribs for roasting.
Cure the pork
Mix the saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt together, then rub the mixture gently over the pork.
Cover the bottom of a pickling tub with salt and pack the pork tightly, adding salt between each layer.
Avoid adding water unless necessary; if the brine does not cover the meat in two weeks, boil a strong brine with salt, saltpetre, sugar, and bay salt, then cool it and pour over the pork.
Place a board with a heavy stone on top of the meat to keep it submerged in the brine.
Ready to serve
After 3 to 4 months, the pickled pork will be ready to serve.
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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Sugar + porktop 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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and slows the growth of spoilage bacteria.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat's pink colour and inhibits spoilage during the long cure.
- Coarse sugar
- Softens the sharpness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
The step that matters
Keep the pork submerged in the brine. Meat exposed to air above the brine can spoil and grow mould or bacteria. A weighted board keeps every piece under the liquid throughout the months-long cure, and topping up with fresh brine when levels drop keeps the cure uniform.
“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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