Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
To Cure Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
In a mortar, mix together the coarse sea salt, bay salt, black pepper, and saltpetre.
Beat the mixture well and rub it into the ham.
Cure the ham
Place the ham in a deep pan and cover it with treacle, rubbing it well for three days.
Continue rubbing the ham daily for a month, turning it each time.
After a month, drain the pickle from the ham and let it drain for about 60 hours.
Finish and dry
Wash the ham with a little white wine vinegar and hang it up to dry.
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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Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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 ham and preserves it by slowing bacterial growth.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface take on colour and flavour during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps keep the cured meat's pink colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria.
- Black pepper
- Adds aroma and a mild heat to the cured surface.
The step that matters
Draining the pickle. Drain the ham fully before drying. Residual brine left on the surface or inside can keep the meat too wet and encourage spoilage, while the salt that has already penetrated continues to preserve it.
“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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