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Mutton and Lamb

A leg of mutton or lamb roasted or boiled, seasoned with coarse sea salt, served with butter and nasturtiums or capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mutton and Lamb

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the leg of mutton or lamb in a pan.

  3. Season thoroughly with coarse sea salt.

Cook

  1. Bake for 12 minutes per pound of lamb or 15 minutes per pound of mutton.

  2. For boiling, plunge the mutton into boiling water.

  3. Scald for 15 minutes per pound, and add 30 minutes in cold weather.

Serve

  1. Serve with drawn butter and nasturtiums or capers.

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. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Mutton + caperstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton or lamb
Main protein that becomes tender and juicy as it cooks through.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat thoroughly and flavors the outer surface.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and makes the serving sauce smooth and savory.
Nasturtiums or capers
Adds sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the meat and butter.

The step that matters

Cooking time per pound. Time depends on the weight and type of meat, because heat must travel to the center of a thick cut. Mutton is given more time per pound than lamb, so underestimating the weight or time can leave the center undercooked.

Swap the capers

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

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersthe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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