Skip to main content

Westphalia Hams

Contains saltpetre, which may pose food safety risks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Westphalia Hams

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the hams with common salt and drain them.

  2. Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt together and rub it into the ham.

  3. After 3 days, pour 1 pint of vinegar over the ham.

  4. For added flavor, pour old strong beer over the ham and smoke with juniper-wood while drying.

  5. Optionally, mix molasses, juniper-berries, and herbs, and rub this mixture into the ham, using just enough salt to assist in the cure.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Basil + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Beer + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Vinegar + beertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

Swap the basil

The recipe marks basil as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, beer, sage, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, beer, sage, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes