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Westphalia Ham

A cured ham from Westphalia, brined with salt, sugar, spices, then smoked for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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.

Cure

  1. Cover the ham with dry salt for 24 hours.

  2. Boil the coarse sea salt, common salt, saltpetre, moist sugar, sal prunella, pounded juniper berries, and socho in water until well mixed.

  3. Let the brine cool, then submerge the cleaned ham in it.

  4. Cover the ham and let it brine for nearly a month, turning it twice a week.

  5. After brining, wipe the ham with a dry cloth.

Season and smoke

  1. Mix pounded pepper and bran, then rub it into the ham, focusing on the cavities.

  2. Hang the ham near a wood-burning chimney to smoke for 3 to 6 months.

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. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic reddish colour.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while seasoning it through the cure.
Moist sugar
Balances the salt and feeds mild browning and sweetness in the cured surface.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the ham and helps preserve it during the long cure.

The step that matters

Brining for nearly a month. The brine must fully cover the ham and be turned regularly so salt and cure penetrate evenly. Uneven contact can leave spoilage-prone spots or uneven seasoning in the thick meat.

“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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