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Shoulder of Mutton

A roasted shoulder of mutton stuffed with savory dressing, served with gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and chicken work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 471 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Shoulder 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.

Prepare and roast

  1. Stuff the shoulder of mutton with savory dressing and skewer it to make it round.

  2. Place it in a roasting pan in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Brown the meat and add a little water to baste it well.

  4. Roast for twelve minutes per pound.

Serve

  1. Prepare gravy as you would for shoulder of mutton.

  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. Mutton + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together471 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Chicken + curranttop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of mutton
Forms the main cut of meat; its fat and connective tissue soften and enrich the roast during long cooking.
Savory dressing
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavor to the meat as it cooks.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savory flavor of the mutton.

The step that matters

Brown the meat and baste with water. Browning builds flavor through the Maillard reaction on the surface, while a little water added to the pan keeps the meat from drying out. Too little basting risks a dry roast.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, chicken. 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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