Why it works: Pepper and ham 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
Combine the coarse sea salt, common salt, saltpetre, and black pepper in a mortar.
Cure the hams
Lay the hams in a deep pan for three days.
Cover the hams with treacle and rub it in well.
Rub the salt mixture into the hams.
Let the hams sit in the pan for one month.
Turn and rub the hams daily.
Drain and hang
Let the hams drain for three days on a dish, using cross sticks to assist with draining.
Rub the hams with pyroligneous acid.
Hang the hams up wrapped in brown paper.
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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Pepper + hamtop 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 meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and set its colour.
- Black pepper
- Adds a sharp, aromatic flavour to the cure.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a dark, sticky coating that balances the salt.
- Pyroligneous acid
- Adds a smoky aroma and flavour to the outside of the hams.
The step that matters
Turn and rub the hams daily. Salt draws moisture out and penetrates slowly, so regular turning and rubbing keeps the cure even and prevents uneven, poorly preserved patches over the month.
“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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