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 ↓
To Pickle Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Dredge the pork with salt, nearly as fine as flour.
Place it on four crossed sticks or in an earthenware dish to drain for 18 to 24 hours.
Rub the pork well with a brine made from salt, brown sugar, saltpetre, and saltprunel if using.
If salting multiple pieces, pack them closely in a tub, filling gaps with common salt.
Place a weight on top to keep the meat submerged and prevent air exposure.
Prepare and cook
When ready to cook, scrape off the salt and wash the pork in several waters or under running water for 2-3 minutes.
Soak the pork for half an hour if desired.
Boil the pork in cold water until the rind is tender.
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
- Pork
- The meat being cured; salt firms its texture and draws out moisture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while helping preserve it.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the sharpness of the salt in the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its colour and resist spoilage during curing.
The step that matters
Washing off the salt before cooking. Salt keeps penetrating the meat while it sits, so the surface salt must be washed off thoroughly. Rinsing in several changes of water, and soaking if wanted, reduces the saltiness so the pork is not too salty when boiled.
“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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