Name: Pickle for Mutton Hams, and Tongues
Ingredients: 1 cup coarse sugar; 1 cup common salt; 1 cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 ounce saltpetre; 1 ounce sal prunel; ½ ounce black pepper, bruised or ground; ½ ounce allspice, bruised or ground; ½ ounce juniper berries, bruised or ground; ½ ounce coriander seeds, bruised or ground

Why it works: Allspice and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pickle for Mutton Hams, and Tongues

Ingredients

1 cup coarse sugar
1 cup common salt
1 cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 ounce saltpetre
1 ounce sal prunel
½ ounce black pepper, bruised or ground
½ ounce allspice, bruised or ground
½ ounce juniper berries, bruised or ground
½ ounce coriander seeds, bruised or ground

Directions

Mix the cure

Mix equal parts of coarse sugar, common salt, and coarse sea salt.
Add 1 ounce each of saltpetre and saltpeter for every pound of the mixture.
Incorporate ½ ounce each of bruised or ground black pepper, allspice, juniper berries, and coriander seeds.

Apply the cure

Dry the mixture before the fire, then apply it hot to the mutton hams.

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.

Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,949 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,938 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + coriandertop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,749 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coarse sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the salt.
Common salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it.
Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it.
Saltpetre: Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and sets its colour.
Juniper berries: Adds a resinous, aromatic flavour to the cured meat.
Allspice: Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the cure.

The step that matters

Dry the mixture before applying it. If the cure is damp it clumps and will not rub evenly onto the meat. Drying it thoroughly before the fire gives a loose, even mixture that coats the hams uniformly.

Swap the coriander

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

Cinnamonfits better
Clovefits better
Nutmegfits better
Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, allspice. 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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Pickle for Mutton Hams, and Tongues