Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Hot Salted Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pork
Let the meat stand overnight in a cool place.
Fill a large iron kettle with barrel salt and heat it over coals, stirring constantly until very hot.
Salt the pork
Make a hole in the center of the salt, about 2-3 inches deep.
Place the pork joint in the hole, rind side up, and cover it well with hot salt.
Leave small joints in the salt for 5 minutes, medium joints for 8 minutes, and large joints for 10-12 minutes.
Using clean gloves, remove the joint, leaving any salt that sticks.
Season and keep
Mix the sugar, pepper, and cloves together, and rub 1 tablespoon of the mixture onto each joint.
The pork can be smoked in 4-5 days and will keep well in hot weather.
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 + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,515 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
- Barrel salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it while forming a crust around the joint.
- Pork joint
- The main meat that is cured and later smoked.
- Ground sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cured surface.
- Ground pepper
- Adds sharp aroma and flavor to the seasoned coating on the joint.
- Ground cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the rubbed coating.
The step that matters
Timing the hot salt bath. Leaving the joint in the hot salt for longer than its size calls for can over-cook or toughen the meat, while too short a time leaves the cure uneven. Matching time to joint size keeps the result even.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, pepper):
- Gingerfits about as well
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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