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Hams, to Cure

This recipe describes curing hams with salt, sugar, saltpetre, vinegar, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Hams, to Cure

Ingredients

Directions

Dry cure

  1. Rub the hams with common salt.

  2. Leave the hams in a large pan for 3 days.

  3. Drain the hams and discard the brine.

  4. Mix the sugar, salt, and saltpetre.

  5. Rub the mixture onto the hams.

Brine

  1. Place the hams in a large vessel, ensuring the salt covers them.

  2. Let the hams sit for 3 days.

  3. Pour 1 quart of vinegar over the hams.

  4. Turn the hams in the brine daily for a month.

Smoke

  1. Drain the hams and rub them with bran.

  2. Smoke the hams over a wood fire, hanging them as high as possible to prevent drying out.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  3. Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Common salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it while the cure penetrates.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat's pink colour and inhibits spoilage during curing.
Moist sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
Good vinegar
Adds acidity to the brine, contributing tang and aiding preservation.

The step that matters

Turning the hams in the brine daily. Salt and curing agents penetrate meat slowly and unevenly. Turning the hams daily keeps every surface in contact with the brine, so the cure reaches evenly through the meat rather than leaving spoiled or underseasoned areas.

“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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