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Boiled Leg of Mutton

A boiled leg of mutton cooked in butter, onion juice, lemon, pepper, and salt, served with tomato juice, butter, flour, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Put the leg of mutton in a kettle.

  2. Add one tablespoonful of butter and one teaspoonful of onion juice.

  3. Cook for ten minutes over a hot fire, turning frequently.

  4. Cover with hot water.

  5. Slice a lemon, add pepper and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook for two and a half hours.

  2. Serve with one cupful of tomato juice, teaspoonful of butter, teaspoonful of flour, tablespoonful of vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

168Calories
2 gProtein
12 gFat
15 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton leg (in the method)
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the cooking liquid.
Onion juice
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the meat.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and a bright, tangy flavour to the serving sauce.

The step that matters

Cook for two and a half hours. Tough cuts of meat need long, low cooking so collagen breaks down into gelatin, making the meat tender. Cooking too briefly or at a hard boil leaves it chewy or dry.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion. 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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