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, then rub the mixture onto the ham.
Place the ham skin-side down in a hollow tray and baste it daily for 14 days.
Smoke and dry
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.
Serve
Cut the ham into rashers and serve broiled for best flavor.
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
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic color.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness of the cure and adds mild sweetness.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during the cure.
The step that matters
Basting the ham daily during the 14-day cure. Salt and sugar must be kept evenly in contact with the meat as the cure draws out moisture. Skipping basting can leave patchy curing and uneven preservation across the joint.
“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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