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To Pickle Cheeks of Bacon and Hams

A cured and pickled pork dish using salt, sugar, optional saltpetre, and pepper, left to cure for weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Cheeks of Bacon and Hams

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the salt, sugar, saltpetre, and black pepper in a bowl.

  2. Rub the mixture thoroughly over the pork.

  3. Place the pork in a cool, dry place for 4 to 5 weeks, depending on the size.

  4. Turn the pork occasionally to ensure even curing.

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. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + porktop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

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

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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

Pork
The main protein, which the cure penetrates and firms as it cures.
Common salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it while seasoning it.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness, softening the harshness of the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat's pink colour and guards against spoilage during the long cure.

The step that matters

Turning the pork during the cure. Salt and sugar penetrate meat slowly and unevenly, so thick and thin areas cure at different rates. Turning the pork occasionally helps the cure reach all surfaces evenly and prevents spoilage in spots the mixture missed.

“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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