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Roast Mutton

A seasoned mutton roast flavored with ginger, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, mace, and herbs, baked with celery, white sauce, tomatoes, stock, almonds, and optional claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Roast 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

  1. Bone the mutton and season it with a mixture of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, and mace mixed in hot vinegar steeped with bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, and garlic.

  2. Rub the mutton thoroughly with this mixture and place it in a cool, dry place for 1.5 days.

Stuff and cover

  1. Fill the cavity with finely chopped celery cooked until tender, mixed with white sauce made from the stock from the bone.

  2. When ready to cook, cover the mutton with finely chopped mushrooms and chopped almonds.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting constantly with a mixture of strained tomatoes and rich stock.

  2. Add a glass of claret if desired.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton (in the method)
The main cut; its lean meat takes on the spiced marinade and browns during roasting.
Hot vinegar
Its acidity carries the spices into the meat and helps tenderise the surface.
Ground ginger and cinnamon
Provide warm aromatic flavour that penetrates the meat during marinating.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness to the celery filling, keeping it soft and cohesive.
Almonds
Add fat and a crisp, toasted texture to the crust on the outside of the meat.
Strained tomatoes
Their sugars and acids add flavour and help the basted surface brown.

The step that matters

Basting constantly while roasting. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and promotes even browning. The tomato and sugar in the basting mixture can scorch at high oven heat, so the meat's surface needs watching.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, cinnamon, pepper, clove, vinegar, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, cinnamon, pepper, clove, vinegar, thyme, marjoram. 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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