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 Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Hang the leg of mutton for three days.
Boil together the coarse sea salt, common salt, saltpetre, and coarse sugar until hot.
Rub the hot mixture into the ham thoroughly.
Cure in the pickle
Turn the ham in the pickle twice a day.
After one week, add 1 to 2 ounces more common salt.
Let the ham sit in the pickle for a fortnight, turning it as before.
Dry and hang
Remove the ham, dry it well, and hang it in a chimney where wood is burned for six days.
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
- Leg of mutton
- The main meat, which the salt cure penetrates and preserves.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it its cured colour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and softens the overall flavour of the cure.
The step that matters
Rubbing the hot mixture in thoroughly. Salt must reach deep into the muscle evenly for the ham to cure safely. Missed spots can spoil or cure unevenly, and turning the ham twice a day keeps the pickle in contact with every surface.
“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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