Why it works: Summer savory and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 263 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Stuffed Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Remove the bone from the leg of mutton and fill the cavity with a stuffing made from bread crumbs, pepper, salt, summer savory, chopped salt pork, and butter.
Skewer the ends of the mutton and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.
Place the mutton in a roasting pan with a little water.
Roast
Roast in the oven, basting every 15 minutes with melted butter and lightly dredging with flour.
A 6-pound piece will take about 1.5 hours to roast.
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.
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Summer savory + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together263 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together671 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leg of mutton
- Forms the main meat and carries the stuffing while it roasts.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb juices in the stuffing, keeping the filling moist and holding its shape.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that melts into the stuffing and meat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the surface brown during basting.
- Flour
- Dredged over the meat to help form a browned, slightly crisp crust.
The step that matters
Basting and dredging during roasting. Basting with melted butter every 15 minutes keeps the surface from drying out, while a light dusting of flour helps build a browned crust. Skipping these steps can leave the meat dry and pale.
Swap the summer savory
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, pepper, pork, butter, flour):
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
- Summer savorythe original
- Marjoramfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, pepper, pork, butter, flour. 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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