Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Haunch of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Order a haunch of South Devon mutton and have the butcher trim it.
Rub the haunch with a coarse cloth.
Dredge the haunch with flour.
Wrap the haunch in large sheets of white paper spread with sweet dripping.
Roast
Roast the haunch near a good fire for the first half hour.
Move the haunch further away from the fire.
Roast the haunch slowly, basting constantly, cooking for 18 minutes per pound for well done, or 10–14 minutes for less done.
Remove the paper 20 minutes before serving.
Dredge the haunch with baked flour.
Baste the haunch with melted butter.
Make the gravy and serve
Pour off the dripping.
Add boiling water and coarse sea salt to the dripped gravy.
Pour the gravy into a hot dish.
Place the haunch on the dish, broad side up.
Serve immediately with red currant jelly.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + red curranttop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together495 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Flour + red curranttop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together394 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mutton + red curranttop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together82 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour and butter 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
- Mutton haunch
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy through slow roasting.
- Sweet dripping
- Fat that coats the wrapped meat, carrying heat and promoting browning and flavour.
- Butter
- Melted fat for basting, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
- Flour
- Dusted on the meat to help form a browned, slightly crisp crust.
The step that matters
Slow roasting with constant basting. Cooking gently after the initial hot start lets the connective tissue and fat soften without drying the meat. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist so the juices stay in and the outside does not scorch.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, butter. 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.
More haunch of mutton recipes
You might also like
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Haricot Mutton59 recipes
Mutton Soup56 recipes
Curried Mutton9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.