Why it works: Ham and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
To Cure Hams, Bacon, Tongues, &C.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Hang the ham for 2-3 days in a cool place before salting.
Beat the ham well with a rolling pin or thick stick.
Cure the ham
Mix the salt, sugar, and saltpetre together and warm them by the fire.
Rub the mixture thoroughly into the ham.
Place the ham in a pan.
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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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Ham
- The meat being cured; salt penetrates its muscle to season and preserve it.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and slows spoilage, preserving the meat and seasoning it.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the harshness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture thoroughly into the ham. Salt and saltpetre preserve meat only where they reach. Thin or uneven coverage leaves untreated areas that can spoil, so every surface needs an even coating.
“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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