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To Roast a Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton served with Espagnole sauce or plain mutton gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,078 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Roast a Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the haunch is well kept and ask the butcher to hang it properly if necessary.

Roast

  1. Roast the haunch over a large fire, keeping it at a distance for at least 2 hours.

  2. Draw it nearer to the fire, but avoid burning the fat.

  3. Baste constantly and dust with flour soon after placing it on the fire.

  4. Roast for 3.5 to 4 hours, adjusting time if not kept back initially.

Serve

  1. Serve with Espagnole sauce or plain mutton gravy and currant jelly.

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 + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes
  4. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Haunch of mutton
Its fat and lean meat provide the main body and richness of the dish.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps form a crust that browns during roasting.
Espagnole sauce or plain mutton gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the sliced meat.
Currant jelly
Its sweetness and acidity balance the rich flavour of the mutton.

The step that matters

Keeping the fat from burning. Moving the haunch closer to the fire only after the initial slow roasting lets the meat cook through, while fat exposed to direct heat too early can scorch and turn bitter.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, sauce. 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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