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Leg of Mutton Boned and Forced

A leg of mutton stuffed with a seasoned forcemeat mixture and roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Boned and Forced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

  1. Turn the underside of the mutton upwards.

  2. Cut through the skin from the knuckle to the first joint.

  3. Raise the skin from the flesh along the bone.

  4. Cut through the flesh down to the bone.

  5. Work the knife around the bone until you reach the socket.

  6. Remove the flat bone from the large end.

  7. Loosen the skin around the middle joint carefully.

  8. Draw out the two bones without dividing them.

Stuff and close

  1. Fill the cavities with the prepared forcemeat, adding high seasoning of eschalot, garlic, or onion.

  2. Sew the skin neatly together where it was cut open.

  3. Tie the knuckle tightly to prevent gravy escape.

  4. Replace the flat bone at the large end.

  5. Draw the edges of the meat together with a long needle and twine.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton on a spit or hanging bottle-jack with the knuckle downwards, starting far from the fire.

  2. Baste constantly.

  3. Roast for nearly three hours.

  4. Remove the twine before serving with rich brown 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. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Winter savory + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the rich meat flavour.
Inside of mutton
Chopped fine and bound into the forcemeat, adding moisture and meaty richness to the stuffing.
Bacon
Adds fat that melts into the forcemeat, keeping it moist and savoury during roasting.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal aroma that lightens the rich meat.
Thyme
Adds a warm, earthy aroma that complements the roasted meat and stuffing.

The step that matters

Tie the knuckle tightly. A loose tie lets the stuffing and juices escape during roasting, so the cavity must be sealed firmly before the long roast.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, nutmeg, lemon. 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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