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Ham

A ham cured with saltpetre, sugar, salt, treacle, pepper, and juniper berries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Rub and salt

  1. Rub bruised juniper berries onto the meat before adding salt.

  2. Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt with the ham.

  3. Cure the ham for 8 to 12 hours.

Cure and finish

  1. Add bay salt and common salt, then cure for 4 days.

  2. Afterward, apply treacle and cure for 1 month.

  3. To enhance flavor, add black pepper and additional juniper berries.

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. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and sets its pink curing colour.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds gentle sweetness to the cured meat.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat as the cure penetrates.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich molasses flavour to the surface.
Juniper berries
Adds a resinous, aromatic flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Allow the full curing time at each stage. Salt and curing agents penetrate meat slowly. If the cure is unevenly applied or a curing stage is cut short, parts of the ham stay under-cured and more prone to spoilage.

“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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