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For Curing Hams

A method for curing a hog leg using salt, sugar, pepper, saltpetre, and other seasonings over several weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

For Curing Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Sprinkle the ham with a little salt and let it drain for a day.

  2. Rub the ham thoroughly with ½ cup coarse sea salt, ½ cup coarse sugar, 1 large handful common salt, and 4 oz. saltpetre.

  3. Lay the ham rind down and cover the fleshy parts with the salt mixture, basting it frequently and turning it every second day.

  4. Keep the ham in the salt for 4 weeks, then drain it and cover it with bran.

Dry and age

  1. Hang the ham in a cool place to dry, then wrap it in a coarse linen cloth rubbed with lime.

  2. Do not use the ham until it is at least 3 months old.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + beertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together940 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beer + allspicetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Sugar + beertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together699 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh leg of hog
Provides the meat that the salt cure penetrates and preserves over the curing period.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, slowing spoilage during curing.
Common salt
Adds further salt to draw out moisture and firm the meat during the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat's colour and inhibits bacteria during long curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the cure.

The step that matters

Keep the ham in the salt for 4 weeks, basting and turning. Salt must penetrate evenly through the thick muscle; uneven coverage or skipped turning lets parts stay under-salted and spoil. Regular basting keeps the salt mixture in contact with the surface as it draws out moisture.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, beer):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, beer. 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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