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 ↓
Westphalia Ham
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Dry salt
Cover the ham with coarse sea salt for 24 hours.
Cure in brine
Boil together the salt, saltpetre, moist sugar, sal runelia, juniper berries, and socho until well mixed.
Let the brine cool, then submerge the ham in it, ensuring it is clean from salt and blood.
Cover the ham with brine and let it sit for nearly a month, turning it at least twice a week.
After curing, wipe the ham with dry cloths.
Coat and smoke
Mix pounded pepper and bran, then rub it into the ham's cavities and over the surface.
Hang the ham in a chimney where only wood is burned for 3 to 6 months to dry and smoke.
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).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Is the meat being salted, cured, dried and smoked over months.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it against spoilage.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the cured colour and adds to the curing action over the long cure.
- Moist sugar
- Balances the salt and adds sweetness and a rounder flavour to the cure.
- Juniper berries
- Add a resinous, aromatic flavour to the cure.
The step that matters
Keeping the ham clean before brining. The record asks that the ham be clean of salt and blood before it goes into the brine. Blood left on the meat can spoil during the long cure, so the surface should be prepared carefully first.
“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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