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Boiled Leg of Mutton

A boiled leg of mutton simmered with onion, bay leaves, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, walnut and mushroom catsup, then finished with sherry wine and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Boiled Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the leg of mutton in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Add the onion, bay leaves, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, walnut catsup, mushroom catsup, salt, and pepper.

Cook

  1. Boil for three hours, then set aside for one hour.

  2. Return to heat, add sherry wine, and cook for another hour.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the cooking liquid and use it to make gravy, adding 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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 that is cooked tender in the seasoned liquid.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, adding depth to the gravy.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the cooking liquid, flavouring the gravy.

The step that matters

Return to heat, add sherry wine, and cook for another hour.. Sherry added late keeps its aroma, since long boiling drives off volatile flavour compounds. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer so the meat stays tender rather than tough.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, meat, onion, tomato, sauce, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, meat, onion, tomato, sauce, mushroom, pepper. 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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