Name: To Cure Hams, Tongues, Etc.
Ingredients: 2 gallons spring water; 2 pounds coarse sugar; 2 pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 2.5 pounds common salt

To Cure Hams, Tongues, Etc.

Ingredients

2 gallons spring water
2 pounds coarse sugar
2 pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
2.5 pounds common salt

Directions

Make the brine

Combine the spring water, coarse sugar, coarse sea salt, and common salt in a large container.
Stir until the salts and sugar are fully dissolved.

Use

Use this brine to cure hams and tongues as desired.

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt: Seasons the brine and draws moisture out of the meat while curing it.
Common salt: Seasons the brine and helps the meat take up salt during curing.
Coarse sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cured meat.

The step that matters

Stir until the salts and sugar are fully dissolved. Undissolved salt and sugar settle to the bottom, so the brine ends up uneven in strength and the meat cures unevenly. Fully dissolved salt gives a uniform solution.

“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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To Cure Hams, Tongues, Etc.