Why it works: Mutton and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,087 recipes. Both carry decanoic acid, which smells soapy, waxy. The science ↓
Boiled Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut off the shank-bone and trim the knuckle of the mutton.
Wash the mutton and place it in a pot with salt.
Boil and simmer
Cover the mutton with boiling water and allow it to boil for a few minutes.
Skim the surface clean.
Reduce the heat and simmer until done, about 2 to 2.5 hours.
Do not pierce the meat with a fork to check doneness.
Serve
Serve with caper sauce or drawn butter.
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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Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,087 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
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 through long, gentle simmering.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the meat from the start and helps draw out flavour during cooking.
The step that matters
Simmering gently until done. A rolling boil toughens meat fibres and can make the outside stringy, while low, steady heat lets connective tissue soften slowly. Avoid piercing the meat, since each puncture lets juices escape and dries the joint.
“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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