Why it works: Mutton and sugar work together. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 726 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ham, Mutton, Smoked
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Have the leg of mutton cut into the shape of a ham and let it hang for 2-3 days.
Rub the meat well with salt, brown sugar, and warmed saltpetre, ensuring to cover the hole of the shank.
Place the mutton in a deep dish and rub it with the mixture daily for 14 days.
Press and smoke
After 14 days, drain and dry the mutton, then place it under a heavy weight for 1 day.
Hang the mutton in smoke for a week or more.
Cook
Cook by boiling or broiling as desired.
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.
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Mutton + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together726 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton leg
- Forms the ham itself; its lean muscle becomes firm and sliceable after curing and smoking.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while firming its texture during the cure.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and slows spoilage during the long cure.
The step that matters
Daily rubbing over 14 days. Salt and cure must penetrate evenly through the thick leg; skipping days or leaving patches uncovered lets the centre spoil or cure unevenly.
“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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