Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Sugar Curing Meats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Dissolve saltpeter in a little warm water.
Mix the salt, black pepper, and sugar together.
Cure the meat
Rub the mixture thoroughly over the meat.
Cure the meat in a cool place for the desired time.
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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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper and sugar 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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it through, which helps the cure penetrate.
- Saltpeter
- Helps the meat keep its pink color and slows spoilage during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the salt's sharpness and adds mild sweetness to the finished meat.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp aroma and a spicy flavor to the outer surface of the meat.
The step that matters
Curing in a cool place. Cool temperatures slow the growth of spoilage bacteria while salt and sugar slowly penetrate the meat. Warm curing can let the meat spoil before the cure has done its job.
“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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