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Ham, Cured

This is a recipe for curing hams using salt, sugar, saltpetre, and vinegar, then smoking them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ham, Cured

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Rub the hams well with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let them drain for 3 days.

  3. Dry the hams.

Cure

  1. Rub them thoroughly with a mixture of salt, sugar, and saltpetre.

  2. Place the hams in a deep pan, skin side down.

  3. Turn and baste them daily for 1 month.

  4. After 3 days, pour a bottle of vinegar over the hams.

  5. Drain and dry the hams well.

Smoke

  1. Hang them high in the chimney to smoke.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 preserves it by slowing bacterial growth.
Moist sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness and flavour to the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
Good vinegar
Adds acidity that contributes tang and helps the cure penetrate the surface.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the hams well before smoking. Surface moisture left on the hams can slow drying and encourage spoilage, while salt that stays on the surface is uneven. Thorough drying helps the smoke adhere and the ham keep well.

“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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