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 Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Cut the hind-quarter of mutton like a ham.
Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt.
Rub the mixture onto the ham.
Cure and dry
Place the ham skin-side down in a hollow tray.
Baste the ham every day for 14 days.
Roll the ham in sawdust and hang it in a dry place.
Serve
Cut the ham into rashers when ready to serve.
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
- Forms the meat that is cured and dried into ham.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
The step that matters
Basting the ham every day for 14 days. The cure must be spread evenly over the meat during the whole curing period. Regular basting keeps the surface moist so the salt and sugar penetrate evenly, and missed days can leave parts under-cured.
“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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