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
Cure
Cut the hind-quarter of mutton like a ham.
Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt together.
Rub the mixture onto the ham and place it skin-side down in a hollow tray.
Baste the ham every day for 14 days.
Smoke and finish
After 14 days, roll the ham in sawdust and hang it in wood smoke for another 14 days.
Boil the ham, then hang it in a dry place.
Cut the ham into rashers.
It is best broiled rather than boiled.
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, smoked and sliced into rashers.
- Saltpetre
- Gives the cured meat its characteristic pink colour and helps preserve it.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the salt and softens the flavour of the cure.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during the long cure.
The step that matters
Basting the ham every day for 14 days. Regular basting keeps the cure evenly spread over the meat as salt draws out moisture. Skipping days can leave uneven curing and spoilage risk.
“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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