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Pickle for Curing Bacon

A brine mixture used to cure bacon, made with water, coarse sea salt, sugar, molasses, saltpetre, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pickle for Curing Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Combine water, coarse sea salt, sugar, molasses, and saltpetre in a large container and stir well.

Pack and cure

  1. Rub the thick part of the ham, shoulder, or middling with a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Pack the meat in a clean barrel, starting with hams, then shoulders, and middlings.

  3. Pour the brine over the meat; if it doesn't cover completely, make more brine using the same proportions.

  4. Let the meat cure in the brine for 4 to 7 weeks, depending on size.

Finish

  1. After curing, drain the meat, sprinkle pepper around the bone, and smoke with hickory wood or air dry as preferred.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while preserving it during the long cure.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds sweetness to the cured meat.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and a darker colour to the cured meat.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat's pink colour and adds to the preserving effect of the cure.

The step that matters

Keeping the meat fully submerged in the brine. Any part of the meat that sits above the liquid can spoil or cure unevenly, because salt only penetrates properly where the brine touches the surface. Making extra brine in the same proportions keeps the cure consistent throughout the long curing period.

“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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