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Venison Ham

A venison ham cured with salt, sugar, molasses, and vinegar, then smoked and wrapped.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Venison Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the hams

  1. Mix coarse sea salt and brown sugar in equal proportions.

  2. Rub mixture into the hams.

  3. Pack the hams in a cask.

  4. Sprinkle dry salt between them.

  5. Let them sit for eight days.

  6. Rub with dry salt and sugar daily.

  7. Mix fine salt, molasses, and saltpetre for every two hams.

  8. Remove hams from the first mixture.

  9. Brush with cider vinegar.

  10. Coat with the new mixture.

  11. Empty the cask.

  12. Wash it with cold water.

  13. Repack the hams.

  14. Sprinkle fine salt over each.

  15. Let the hams sit for another eight days.

Rinse and dry

  1. Wash off the pickle with tepid water until salt crystals are removed.

  2. Sponge with vinegar.

  3. Dust with bran while wet.

Smoke and wrap

  1. Smoke for two to three weeks.

  2. Wrap in unscented brown paper.

  3. Stitch a muslin cover over it.

  4. Whitewash unless using immediately.

  5. Chip or shave for serving.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + cidertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during the cure.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
Fine salt
Penetrates the meat and preserves it, firming the texture during the second cure.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper flavour to the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat's red colour and adds preservation during curing.

The step that matters

Wash off the pickle with tepid water until salt crystals are removed. Leftover surface salt makes the finished ham overly salty and can leave it dry. Rinsing until no crystals remain removes excess salt before drying and smoking, while the surface stays cured.

“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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