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A Bavncb of Mutton Uks Venison

A marinated mutton roast flavored with black pepper, Jamaica pepper, port wine, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Bavncb of Mutton Uks Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the mutton for a week.

  2. Pound the black and Jamaica pepper, then rub it over the mutton.

  3. Pour the port wine over the mutton and let it marinate for five days, basting daily.

  4. After marinating, hang the mutton for an additional four to five days, wiping it with a clean cloth three to four times a day.

Roast and finish

  1. While roasting, baste the mutton with the marinate, adding more port wine.

  2. A quarter hour before removing from the heat, baste with butter and sprinkle flour over it to froth.

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

Fat haunch of mutton
Provides the main body of meat, with fat that bastes and flavours the roast as it cooks.
Port wine
Marinates and moistens the meat, adding sweetness and a deep fruity aroma.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that penetrates the surface of the meat.
Jamaica pepper
Contributes warm, aromatic spice that complements the mutton and port.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the surface brown and gain a glossy finish.
Flour
Sprinkled on the surface, it helps form a frothy, browned crust.

The step that matters

Basting with the marinade while roasting. Basting keeps the surface moist and adds flavour layer by layer, while the sugars and proteins in the port and meat brown. Too little basting can dry the outside before the centre is cooked.

“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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