Name: Shoulder of Mutton Stuffed
Ingredients: 1 cup bread crumbs; Juice of 1 lemon; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon pepper; 12 oysters; 1 egg; Water (for roasting)

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shoulder of Mutton Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Have the butcher remove the blade from the shoulder.

Stuff and roast

Fill the space with a mixture of bread crumbs, lemon juice, butter, salt, parsley, pepper, oysters, and egg.
Sew up the opening and roast in the oven with a little water in the pan.
Allow 15 minutes per pound and baste frequently.

Serve

Serve with the gravy from the pan after pouring off the grease.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Soak up juices and give the stuffing a soft, moist body.
Egg: Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the stuffing brown in the oven.
Oysters: Contribute briny, savory flavor and moisture to the stuffing.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich mutton and oysters.

The step that matters

Allow 15 minutes per pound and baste frequently. Mutton shoulder is a tough, fatty cut that needs slow, long cooking to become tender. Basting keeps the surface moist and helps prevent the meat from drying out during the long roast, while the stuffing cooks through at the centre.

“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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Shoulder of Mutton Stuffed