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Mutton Ham

Choose a short, thick, fresh leg of mutton, weighing twelve or fourteen pounds, and cut it into the form of a ham. Pound in a mortar half a pound of bay salt, one ounce of saltpetre, and half a pound of coarse brown sugar. Make the mixture hot in a stewpan, then rub it thoroughly into the meat. Turn the ham every morning for four days, and rub the pickle well into it. On the fifth day add two ounces more of common salt. Rub and turn it in the brine for twelve days more, then drain, and wipe dry; rub it with dry salt, and hang it up in wood-smoke. No sort of meat is more improved by smoking with aromatic woods than mutton. When once dried it will keep for six months. Mutton hams may be roasted or boiled; but in either case they should be soaked, unless quite freshly done, when they will only require washing. As a breakfast-dish, with eggs, mutton ham is commonly used in the north of England and in Scotland: it is cut in slices as required, and broiled lightly. Time to smoke, one week.