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 ↓
Mutton Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a fine-grained leg of mutton and cut it into a ham shape.
Hang it for two days.
Cure
In a stew-pan, mix ½ pound of coarse sea salt, ½ pound of common salt, 2 ounces of saltpetre, and ½ pound of coarse sugar, then heat the mixture until hot.
Rub the hot mixture well into the ham.
Turn it in the liquid every day.
After four days, add 2 ounces more of common salt.
After twelve days, remove the ham and dry it.
Smoke
Hang it in wood smoke for one week.
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
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat's pink colour and slows spoilage during the long cure.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat, firming its texture as it cures.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
The step that matters
Rubbing the hot mixture well into the ham. Salt and saltpetre must reach every part of the meat to cure it evenly. Thin or missed areas can spoil before the cure takes hold, so coverage should be thorough.
“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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