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Larded Shoulder of Mutton

A roasted shoulder of mutton larded with salt pork, baked with water, butter, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,239 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Larded Shoulder of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Make deep, narrow cuts in the shoulder of mutton with a sharp knife.

  2. Insert narrow strips of salt pork into the incisions, projecting slightly on each side.

Braise

  1. Place the mutton in a roasting pan and pour 2 cups of boiling water over it.

  2. Cover with another pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, basting occasionally with its own gravy.

Brown and serve

  1. When tender, uncover and brown the mutton, basting twice with butter and currant jelly.

  2. Keep the meat hot while straining and thickening the gravy left in the pan.

  3. Serve the gravy separately.

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. Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of mutton
Is the main meat that becomes tender during long, covered baking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it melts into the lean meat during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the surface brown during the final basting.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity and helps the surface glaze and brown.

The step that matters

Covered baking with liquid. The meat must cook covered with water and its own gravy until tender before browning. Uncovering too early can dry the meat and scorch the pan, while not cooking long enough leaves the connective tissue tough.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, 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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