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Haunch of Roebuck, Marinaded

A marinated and roasted haunch of roebuck served with a sauce of ham, vegetables, and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Haunch of Roebuck, Marinaded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the marinade

  1. Prepare a mixture of vinegar, water, minced onions, cloves, mace, peppercorns, salt, sliced carrot, celery, and sweet herbs.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture and place it in a large pan.

Prepare and marinate the haunch

  1. Remove the shank and spine bones from the haunch.

  2. Trim the skin from the upper leg and loin.

  3. Lard these areas with bacon strips.

  4. Submerge the haunch in the marinade for one week.

Roast and serve

  1. After marinating, spit the haunch.

  2. Roast it over a clear fire, basting constantly to prevent dryness.

  3. Once roasted, brush the haunch with melted glaze.

  4. Serve hot, garnished with stewed prunes and fried potatoes.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, fry diced ham, small carrot, celery, and onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add peppercorns, crushed mace, and thyme.

  3. Stir in vinegar and ketchup, then let it boil.

  4. Add brown sauce, Bovril, sherry, and anchovy.

  5. Boil carefully, skim off fat, strain, and serve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Haunch (in the method)
Is the main cut of meat that is tenderised by marinating and then roasted.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the meat and adds a sharp flavour.
Bacon
Lardons add fat and moisture to the lean roast as it cooks.
Brown sauce
Adds savoury depth and colour to the sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce.
Butter
Fat used to fry the sauce vegetables, adding richness and browning.

The step that matters

Basting the haunch during roasting. Lean game meat dries out quickly over a fire. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps build a golden, flavourful crust.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, onion, clove, carrot, celery, ham, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, onion, clove, carrot, celery, ham, 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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