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Roast Mutton

A leg of mutton roasted with turkey dressing, browned flour, and tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and tomato work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 90 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Roast Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton.

  3. Stuff the cavity with turkey dressing.

  4. Dredge the outside of the mutton with browned flour.

  5. Slice 3-4 tomatoes and place them on top of the mutton.

Roast

  1. Roast in the oven until cooked through.

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. Turkey + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mutton + turkeytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

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

  4. Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Turkey + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together963 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that cooks through and is carved for serving.
Browned flour
Coats the outside of the meat, helping it brown and develop a savory crust in the oven.
Tomatoes
Sit on top of the meat, adding moisture and a light acidity as they cook.

The step that matters

Roast in the oven until cooked through. Mutton is dense and thick, so the centre can stay undercooked while the outside browns. Cooking to a safe internal temperature, rather than by time alone, ensures the meat is done throughout.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turkey, 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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