Why it works: Mutton and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,781 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Baked Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the mutton in a baking pan and spread a little butter over it.
Pour enough cold water into the pan to cover the bottom.
Bake and serve
Bake for 15 minutes, then baste the meat.
Place 4 pieces of buttered paper on top of the meat.
If the bottom of the pan is dry, add more water.
If too much fat accumulates, pour off the fat and add cold water.
Continue cooking until a skewer or small knife can be easily inserted into the meat.
Serve with its own gravy.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Its connective tissue and fat soften during long oven cooking, making the meat tender and juicy.
- Butter
- Adds fat that coats the meat, helping it brown and carrying flavour across the surface.
- Cold water
- Keeps the pan moist and forms the base of the gravy as the meat cooks.
The step that matters
Continue cooking until the meat is tender. Mutton is done when a skewer slides in easily, not by time alone. Cooking too briefly leaves tough connective tissue; the gradual heat of the oven is what breaks it down into tender meat.
“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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