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Mutton Hams, to Make

A method for curing a hind quarter of mutton into a ham using saltpetre, sugar, salt, sawdust, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Cut the hind quarter of mutton like a ham.

  2. Mix saltpetre, sugar, and salt together.

  3. Rub the mixture well into the ham.

Cure

  1. Lay the ham skin-side down in a hollow tray.

  2. Haste the ham every day for a fortnight.

Smoke and finish

  1. Roll the ham in sawdust and hang it in wood smoke for a fortnight.

  2. Boil the ham and hang it in a dry place.

  3. Cut the ham into rashers.

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. Mutton + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Hind quarter of mutton
The main meat, whose firm muscle sets the texture of the finished ham.
Saltpetre
Gives the cured meat its pink colour and helps inhibit spoilage bacteria.
Sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it during curing.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture well into the ham. The salt and saltpetre must reach every part of the meat. Thin or uneven coverage lets some areas spoil or cure unevenly, so the rub needs to be worked in 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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