Why it works: Pepper and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mutton Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the salt, pepper, sugar, and saltpetre well into the hams.
Turn the hams every day.
Leave the hams in the mixture for 10 days.
Smoke
After 10 days, remove the hams and smoke them with peat or wood smoke.
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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Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while it cures.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and keep its pink curing colour.
- Sugar
- Balances the harshness of the salt and adds mild sweetness.
- Black pepper
- Adds aroma and a mild sharp flavour to the cured surface.
The step that matters
Rub the cure well into the hams. The salt and saltpetre must penetrate the whole joint evenly. Thin or missed areas cure poorly and are more likely to spoil, so the mixture should cover every surface thoroughly.
“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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