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To Cure a Mutton Ham

A method for curing a mutton hindquarter into ham using salt, spices, and curing time.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Cure a Mutton Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Cut the mutton into the shape of a ham.

  2. Mix the saltpetre, salt, nutmeg, brown sugar, and pepper.

  3. Rub the mixture well into the ham every day until fully incorporated.

  4. Press the ham with a heavy weight.

  5. Let it cure for 14 to 18 days, turning every 3 days and rubbing with the pickle.

Dry and smoke

  1. After curing, take it out, let it drain, and hang it in a dry kitchen.

  2. If possible, smoke the ham.

Boil

  1. To prepare for boiling, soak it in water for a few hours.

  2. Place it in cold water and boil for about 2 hours after it reaches a boil.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Mutton + nutmegtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Nutmeg and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
Salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during the cure.
Brown sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness to the cure.
Mutton
Forms the main body of the ham that is cured and then boiled.

The step that matters

Rubbing and turning during the cure. The cure only penetrates by salt and nitrate diffusing inward from the surface, so the ham must be rubbed and turned regularly and kept under even pressure. Uneven coverage lets parts spoil or cure unevenly, and the full 14 to 18 days is needed for the cure to reach the centre.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, pepper):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe 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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