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Roast Leg of Lamb or Mutton

A roasted leg of lamb or mutton covered in a browned butter and flour sauce, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Roast Leg of Lamb or Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lamb

  1. Parboil the leg of lamb or mutton in salted water.

Make the dressing

  1. In a skillet, brown the butter.

  2. Thicken the browned butter with flour.

  3. Add the milk and season with pepper and salt.

Roast and crust

  1. Cover the meat with a layer of the dressing.

  2. Place in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. As it browns and crisps, add more dressing to form a thick brown crust.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lamb + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 lamb or mutton
Is the main meat, cooked through and roasted to a tender interior under a crust.
Butter
Browned to add richness and a nutty aroma to the dressing.
Flour
Thickens the browned butter into a dressing that clings to the meat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the dressing, adding moisture and body as it thickens.

The step that matters

Adding more dressing as the crust browns. The dressing must thicken and brown in the hot oven rather than run off or burn. Adding layers gradually builds a crust that protects the meat and keeps it moist.

“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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