Mutton ham

[kly stron]

anyone heard of it?
Some 15 years ago we had a local small smoking business nearby, which was very succesful. Unfortunately he had to fold for personal reasons but before he went he claimed to have discovered an old Cumberland recipe for something he called Macon!!
Been brousing the net and came up with this recipe which with suitable modification may work.

Ingredients
leg of mutton     1   pc
brown sugar   150   gm
ground cloves   1   tbs
ground ginger   1   tbs
ground mace   1   tbs
ground white pepper   1   tbs
sea salt     150   gm

Method
To cure the 'ham'
1.Combine all the spices with the sugar
2.Place the mutton leg in a roasting tray and rub the sugar cure into well and evenly 
3.Allow to stand for 2 hours and then rub in the salt
4.Place, covered in a cool dark place (preferably not the refrigerator; but it must be no higher than 6ºC) for 6 days, turning the mutton twice a day and rubbing in any of the cure that has dropped off. The cure may become liquefied and this is normal, just spoon it back over the mutton and rub it back in
5.After 6 days, soak the mutton leg in water for two hours (less if you like a salty ham) prior to cooking

To cook the 'ham'

1.Place into a large pot, cover with water and add some parsley stalks, rosemary, thyme, cracked peppercorns, a bayleaf and a little honey
2.Simmer slowly for approx. 45 minutes per kilo or until tender

Would it be possible to substitute smoking for simmering, a la "Canadian Bacon"

[Oldman]

Frankly this "cure" scares me. I would not call it a cure. 150 gram = 5.2910943 ounces. I don't see how there enough of the sugar and salt for any type of curing. Seasoning yes...A cure no. BTW 6 degrees C is also in the danger zone 42.8 F. I would strongly suggest 3 degrees Celsius which is  37.4 degree Fahrenheit.

At 3 degrees Celsius I can then see this working without it soiling.

Would it be possible to substitute smoking for simmering, a la "Canadian Bacon"

This is something I cannot help you with. Sorry.

Olds

[manxman]

Interesting concept, I make dry cure back bacon using 40g - 60g cure per kilo meat so I would probably weigh the leg of mutton and work out the amount of cure required from that.

I do agree with Olds on temperature, I would cure between 2 and 4C, no higher than 4C.

[kly stron]

Wonder if one of sausagemaking.org cures would be feasable!

[manxman]

Wonder if one of sausagemaking.org cures would be feasable!

I would imagine they would, I have only used the bacon one to date but they have quite a selection.