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, Haunch Of, Roast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Ensure the haunch is well hung and dry by dusting it with flour, rubbing off excess with a dry cloth.
When ready to cook, skin the loin, wash, and dry the haunch.
Cover the haunch with white paper or a paste made of flour and water.
Roast
Place the haunch on a spit or hang it before a vigorous fire for the first 30 minutes, basting constantly with meat dripping.
Remove the paper 30 minutes before it's done and brown the haunch slightly.
Dredge the haunch with flour and baste generously with butter, pouring off excess dripping.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and serve with gravy made from the dripping and boiling broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Serve with currant jelly or currant-jelly sauce.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Haunch of southdown mutton
- Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
- Good meat dripping
- Bastes the surface during the first roasting stage, adding moisture and helping it brown.
- Butter
- Basting fat that adds richness and helps the outer surface brown.
- Flour
- Dusted on the haunch and used in the paste that holds the protective paper, aiding browning of the crust.
- Boiling broth from trimmings
- Added to the dripping to make the gravy, adding liquid and savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Remove the paper 30 minutes before it's done. The paper protects the meat early so it cooks gently; removing it late lets the surface dry and brown without overcooking the interior.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, meat, butter, pepper):
- Lemonfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Limefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, meat, butter, 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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