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To Cure Mutton Ham

This recipe describes curing a hind quarter of mutton into ham using saltpetre, salt, sugar, and optional spices, followed by soaking, pressing, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Cure Mutton Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a hind quarter of good mutton into the shape of a ham and remove any kernels.

  2. Mix saltpetre, coarse salt, and brown sugar together.

  3. Rub the mixture well into the ham, stuffing the hole in the shank with the mixture.

Cure

  1. Soak the ham in a dish for 14 days, rubbing it with the mixture every 2-3 days.

  2. After soaking, press the ham with a weight for 1 day.

Smoke or dry and finish

  1. Smoke the ham with sawdust for 10-15 days or hang it to dry in the kitchen.

  2. If boiling, soak the ham for several hours after smoking.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and gives cured mutton its characteristic pink colour.
Coarse salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping it keep during the cure.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cure in and turning during the 14-day soak. The cure must reach the whole ham, including the stuffed shank hole. Regular rubbing redistributes the salt and saltpetre so that the centre is cured evenly and the meat does not spoil.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

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