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Steamed Leg of Mutton

A leg of mutton steamed, then roasted and served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,077 recipes. The science ↓

Steamed Leg of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Steam

  1. Wash the leg of mutton, place it in a steamer and cook until tender.

Roast

  1. Transfer the leg of mutton to a roasting pan.

  2. Season the leg with coarse sea salt.

  3. Dredge the leg with flour.

  4. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven until nicely browned.

Serve

  1. Use the remaining water from the steamer for soup.

  2. Serve with currant jelly.

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. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes
  2. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Main protein; steaming cooks the meat until tender before it is browned.
Flour
Coats the surface so it browns and forms a crisp, flavorful crust in the oven.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and tartness that balances the rich flavor of the mutton.

The step that matters

Roast until nicely browned. The meat is already cooked by steaming, so the oven only browns the flour-dredged surface. Watch closely, because the flour can scorch before the crust turns golden.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Red currantfits better
  3. Pumpkinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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