Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
For Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the leg
Choose a leg of hog that is fat and at least 1 year old.
Sprinkle the leg with a little salt. Let it drain for a day.
Cure
Rub the leg thoroughly with ½ cup coarse sea salt, ½ cup coarse sugar, ¼ cup common salt, and 4 oz. saltpetre.
Lay the leg rind down and cover the fleshy parts with the salt mixture.
Baste frequently. Turn every second day.
Keep it in the salt for 4 weeks.
Drain it.
Dry and smoke
Cover with bran.
Hang it in a cool place to dry.
Wrap it in a coarse linen cloth rubbed with lime.
Do not dress the ham until it is at least 3 months old.
Smoke the ham for 3 weeks using oak wood.
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.
-
Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Hog leg
- Fat content keeps the finished ham moist and gives it rich flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its pink colour.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
The step that matters
Keep the cure even and turn the leg. Salt must reach every fleshy part for the meat to cure evenly. Basting and turning every second day spread the brine and salt mixture so no area is left under-salted, which could let spoilage start.
“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 ham curing recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 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.