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Steaks of a Leg of Mutton

Steaks cut from a leg of mutton, seasoned with salt and pepper, broiled, then topped with melted butter and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Steaks of a Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut off the flank and remove the bone from the leg of mutton.

  2. Slice the meat into large pieces, each about ½ inch thick.

  3. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the slices.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the slices until cooked to your liking.

  2. Melt butter and pour it over the broiled meat, then sprinkle with capers.

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. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 body of the steaks and provides the meat that is cooked and served.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour over the hot broiled meat.

The step that matters

Broil the slices until cooked to your liking. Thin slices cook quickly under high heat, so they can go from done to overcooked in moments. Watching closely keeps the meat juicy rather than dry and tough.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, 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.

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