Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Select a good-sized leg of mutton and let it hang for three weeks in winter.
Beat the leg all over with a rolling pin to tenderize the meat.
Insert a clove of garlic or slices of shallots into the hock end of the leg.
Dredge the leg with flour and spread a little butter over it.
Roast and serve
Roast in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Baste frequently with boiling water at first, then with the juice from the pan.
Once cooked, place the mutton on a hot platter, strain the gravy, and skim off the fat.
Serve with currant jelly.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Clove + curranttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,038 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton leg
- Forms the main body of the dish, with lean muscle and fat that become tender when roasted slowly.
- Flour
- Dredging creates a dry surface that helps the outside brown during roasting.
- Butter
- Adds fat to the surface, promoting browning and a richer flavor on the roast.
- Garlic or shallots
- Inserted into the leg to add a mild aromatic flavor that moves into the meat as it cooks.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savory flavor of the mutton.
The step that matters
Basting with boiling water at first. Early basting with boiling water keeps the surface moist so the flour and butter do not scorch before the meat is cooked through. Switching to pan juices later builds flavor and color.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, clove, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Quincefits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, clove, flour, 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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