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Pork, to Pickle

A method of preserving pork by curing it with saltpetre, sugar, sal-prunella, and salt, then storing it in a cool place.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,638 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Pork, to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Mix the saltpetre, coarse sugar, sal-prunella, and a little common salt.

  2. Pound the mixture until fine.

Cure the pork

  1. Sprinkle the pork with common salt.

  2. Let it drain for 24 hours.

  3. Rub the pork with the mixed ingredients.

  4. Pack the pork tightly in a small deep tub.

  5. Fill spaces with common salt.

  6. Place large pebbles on the pork to prevent it from floating in the pickle.

Store

  1. Store in a cool, air-tight place for up to two years.

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. Pork + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Sugar + hamtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + porktop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and gives it its characteristic colour during curing.
Coarse sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salts.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and helps preserve the pork during curing.
Pork (hams and shoulders)
The main meat, which is firmed and preserved by the cure.

The step that matters

Packing the pork tightly and keeping it submerged. Air pockets and pork floating above the pickle can let spoilage start, so the tub must be packed firmly with salt filling gaps and weighted with pebbles to keep the meat under the brine.

“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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