Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Curing Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Boil water and add rock salt, sugar, and saltpetre.
Skim off the scum until removed.
Let the brine cool.
Cure the meat
Pour the brine over the hams.
Let the hams remain in the brine for 6 weeks before smoking.
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.
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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rock salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps keep the cured meat pink and adds a characteristic cured flavour.
The step that matters
Skimming the brine. Scum that is not removed while the brine boils can rise back into the cure and affect its clarity and flavour. Skim until the surface is clean before cooling.
“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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