Why it works: Pork and pepper 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 ↓
Super-excellent Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the pork with saltpetre and brown sugar, then let it sit several hours.
Cover the meat with the coarse sea salt and common salt mixture.
After four days, add treacle and turn the hams daily.
Baste the hams with pickle for one month.
Dry and smoke
Hang the hams to drain overnight, then wrap them in brown paper.
Smoke the hams for one month.
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.
-
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provides the meat that the cure penetrates and firms as it dries and smokes.
- Saltpetre
- Preserves the meat and helps give cured pork its pink colour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it against spoilage.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and adds salty flavour to the cure.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the salt and feeds the flavour of the cure.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep molasses flavour to the cured surface.
The step that matters
Covering the meat with the salt mixture. Salt draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it. If the meat is not fully covered, the cure penetrates unevenly and spoilage can start in the gaps.
“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.
More cured bacon recipes
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.