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As Venison

A mutton breast is salted, spiced, sugared, and smoke-dried in a chimney so it cures like venison.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

As Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Hang the mutton breast in a cool place for as long as the weather allows.

  2. Remove the outer skin and bones, then sprinkle coarse sugar inside the meat.

  3. Place a tasteless board on top with heavy weights and let it sit for 48 hours.

Cure the meat

  1. Boil thyme, marjoram, eschalots, nutmeg, sea salt, and white pepper in old ale for 20 minutes.

  2. Rub the mixture on both sides of the meat for 20 minutes, then place it in a deep vessel with the sugar and keep rubbing for 7 to 9 days.

  3. Afterward, dry the meat with cloths and layer it with bay leaves, laurel, thyme, parsley, and any available sweet herbs in a dry tub.

Dry and smoke

  1. Wash the meat in a mixture of vinegar and table beer for 5 minutes, then hang it to dry for 24 hours.

  2. Roll the meat up tightly and hang it in a chimney, avoiding excessive smoke, to dry for a week using beech chips, grass turfs, and sawdust.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + beertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton breast
Forms the main body of meat that the cure penetrates and firms as it dries.
Coarse sugar
Adds sweetness and draws moisture out of the meat as part of the cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during curing.
Old ale
Carries the herbs and spices into the meat and adds depth of flavour.
Eschalots
Contribute savoury aroma and mild sweetness to the cure.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cure in over 7 to 9 days. Salt and sugar must reach the centre of a thick piece of meat by diffusion, which is slow. Uneven or brief rubbing leaves parts under-cured and vulnerable to spoilage, so the mixture needs regular, thorough contact throughout the period.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, thyme, marjoram, nutmeg, vinegar, beer):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, thyme, marjoram, nutmeg, vinegar, 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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