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Leg of Mutton Boiled

A leg of mutton boiled with turnips and served with caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,558 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the shank bone and trim the knuckle of the leg of mutton.

  2. Soak the leg in milk-warm water for 10 minutes and wash it clean.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover the leg with cold water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any scum and simmer gently for 2.5 to 3 hours, depending on weight and season.

  3. Serve with boiled turnips and caper sauce.

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 + turniptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,558 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Mutton + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together814 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Turnip + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Milk + turniptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender as its connective tissue breaks down during long, gentle simmering.
Caper sauce
Adds a sharp, acidic contrast that cuts through the richness of the boiled mutton.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum and simmer gently. Bringing the water to a hard boil or letting it rage makes the meat tough and cloudy. Gentle simmering keeps the proteins relaxed while collagen slowly softens, and skimming removes foam that would otherwise cling back onto the meat and broth.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, milk, sauce. 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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