Macon is mutton cured like bacon or ham. Although mutton has been salted and cured for centuries (Glasse 1747, etc), the name 'macon' appears to have been invented during the Second World War as The Ministry of Food attempted to get people to use up the surpluses of sheep. Macon is still home-made on northern farms, but is only rarely available commercially.


Mutton Ham, 2016
Image: http://www.bmv-butchery.co.uk


Original Receipt in 'The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy' by Hannah Glasse, 1747 (Glasse 1747);

To make mutton hams.
YOU must take a hind-quarter of mutton, cut it like a ham, take one ounce of salt-petre, a pound of coarse sugar, a pound of common salt; mix them and rub your ham, lay it in a hollow tray with the skin downwards, baste it every day for a fortnight, then roll it in saw-dust, and hang it in the wood-smoke a fortnight; then boil it, and hang it in a dry place, and cut it out in rashers. It don't eat well boiled, but eats finely broiled.


Original Receipt from 'Lakeland Recipes Old and New' Published by Countryside Publications Ltd, School Lane, Brinscall, Chorley, Lancashire. (Tamley-Reed Ltd, ISBN 0 86157 008 1). Copyright Joan Poulson 1978. Found by Linda Johnson

Page 10 No. 3 Mutton Ham

1 small leg of mutton                                                   
1½ oz butter
Demerara or Barbados sugar                                    
A good pinch of thyme
8oz bay salt                                                               
12oz common salt                                                      
6 bay leaves                                                               
Peppercorns
4 pints water                                                               
Bay leaves
2½ oz juniper berries                                                
Lemon peel

Rub the mutton well with sugar and leave in a cool place for twelve hours, turning two or three times.
Simmer the salts, juniper berries, butter, thyme and six bay leaves in the water for an hour. When cooled to blood heat put in the meat, with any remaining sugar.
Leave for two to three weeks, remove and dry, then smoke if possible. Otherwise wrap in clean muslin and hang until required. When cooking, add the given flavourings to the water.