Why it works: Molasses and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,879 recipes. The science ↓
Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and rub
Hang the hams for a week to ten days in a cool, dry place.
Mix the salt, molasses, and saltpetre in a bowl.
Heat the mixture and rub it well into the hams, especially around the bones.
Repeat the rubbing process until all the mixture is used. Then let the hams sit for two to three days.
Brine and soak
Submerge the hams in brine for three weeks.
Soak the hams in cold water for eight hours.
Dry, smoke and store
Hang the hams to dry in a convenient place for a week or more.
Smoke the hams for three to five days, keeping them cool.
Store the hams in bags for the summer.
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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Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
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 slows spoilage, preserving it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and keep its colour during long curing.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour that balances the salt.
The step that matters
Rubbing the cure into the hams, especially around the bones. Salt must penetrate deep into the meat, and bone areas are slow to cure. If the mixture misses spots, those areas can spoil before the ham is preserved.
“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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