Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Mutton Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Wipe the mutton legs dry with a clean towel.
Mix 1 pound of salt, 2 ounces of saltpetre, and 1 pound of brown sugar, slightly heating the mixture, then rub it well into the meat.
Place the hams in a salting tub for 2-3 days, turning and rubbing them frequently.
Prepare a second mixture with 1 pound of brown sugar, 1 pound of salt, 2 ounces of saltpetre, 1 ounce of black pepper, and 1 ounce of cloves, heating it for a few minutes.
Second cure
Remove the hams from the tub and wipe them dry.
Rub them with the second mixture.
Clean the salting tub, return the hams to it, and cover them.
Let them sit for 2 weeks, turning them and basting them with the liquid.
Smoke and wrap
Smoke the hams for 2 weeks using green birch, oak, hickory, or corn-cobs.
Wrap the hams in new cloths.
Whitewash the outside of the covers.
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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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Mutton + clovetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,152 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
- Mutton legs
- Provide the meat that is cured and smoked into ham.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Preserves the meat and keeps its colour pink during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the salt with sweetness and adds flavour to the cure.
- Black pepper
- Adds a sharp, aromatic bite to the cure.
- Cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the cure.
The step that matters
Turning and basting during the second cure. Salt and cure must penetrate evenly through the thick legs. Without regular turning and basting with the liquid, the surfaces over-cure while the centre stays under-cured, which risks uneven preservation.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, pepper):
- Cardamomfits better
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, pepper. 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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