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High-flavoured Hams

A method of curing hams with saltpeter, cloves, sea salt, sugar, treacle, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

High-flavoured Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the hams with a rolling pin.

  2. Rub in saltpeter, saltpeter, and pounded cloves.

  3. Let them sit for 24 hours.

Cure

  1. Rub the hams with coarse sea salt and coarse sugar.

  2. Let them sit for a week.

  3. Boil treacle and salt in vinegar until nearly cold.

  4. Pour the mixture over the hams.

  5. Turn the hams every day for a month.

Dry

  1. Dry the hams as instructed.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
Gives cured hams their pink colour and helps inhibit spoilage bacteria.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat as it penetrates the hams.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds sweetness to the cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps preserve the hams and sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Turn the hams every day for a month. Regular turning keeps the salt, sugar and cure penetrating evenly. Spots left unturned can cure unevenly and become vulnerable to spoilage.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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