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Mutton and Lamb

A roasted leg of mutton seasoned with coarse sea salt, flour, and butter, served with plain gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 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 your oven to 400°F (200°C).

Roast

  1. Place the leg of mutton in the oven and baste it immediately with butter.

  2. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on the meat.

  3. When the meat is nearly done, dredge it with flour.

  4. Roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes for a 6-pound leg.

  5. For a 12-pound leg, roast for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with good plain gravy.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mutton + clovetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Is the main cut of meat, providing the substance and flavour of the dish.
Butter
Bastes the surface, adding moisture and richness while the meat roasts.
Flour
Dredged over the meat near the end, helping form a light crust that browns.

The step that matters

Dredging with flour near the end. Flour added too early can scorch or burn in the hot oven before the meat is cooked. Adding it when the meat is nearly done lets it form a browned, crisp coating.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, 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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