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To Cure Mutton Hams

A method for curing mutton hams using beef ham pickle, sawdust, and wood smoke.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Cure Mutton Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Rub the mutton with the beef ham pickle.

  2. Place it in a pan with the skin side down and baste daily for a fortnight.

Smoke

  1. Roll it in sawdust and suspend it in wood smoke for the same period.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil and hang it in a dry place.

  2. Slice and boil as needed.

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. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the meat that is cured, smoked and then boiled before eating.
Beef ham pickle
Salts and seasons the meat during the long cure, drawing out moisture and flavour.
Sawdust
Provides the fuel that releases smoke, flavouring the surface of the meat.
Wood smoke
Adds smoky aroma and flavour and helps preserve the meat's surface.

The step that matters

Basting daily during the cure. Regular basting keeps the pickle in contact with the meat surface so salt penetrates evenly. Skipping days can leave uneven curing and dry patches.

“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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