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To Cure Westphalia Hams

A method for curing a young pork ham using salt, sugar, saltpetre, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,638 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

To Cure Westphalia Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cover the ham with dry salt and let it sit for 24 hours to draw off the blood.

  2. Wipe the ham dry.

Cure

  1. In an iron pan over low heat, combine brown sugar, saltpetre, coarse sea salt, and salt, stirring until warm.

  2. Submerge the ham in the pickle for 3 weeks, turning it frequently.

Smoke and dry

  1. Suspend the ham in a chimney to dry using smoke from a wood fire, preferably oak sawdust or shavings.

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 + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork ham
Forms the meat that the cure penetrates and the smoke dries.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
Saltpetre
Preserves the meat's pink colour and helps inhibit spoilage during curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the cure.

The step that matters

Submerging the ham in the pickle for 3 weeks. The ham must stay fully covered and be turned often so the brine penetrates evenly. Uneven exposure lets parts spoil or cure unevenly, while salt draws out moisture and preserves the meat.

“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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