Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Dress a Haunch of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the haunch
Wash the haunch of mutton with warm milk and water or vinegar to remove any bad flavor.
Make a paste with coarse flour or strong paper and wrap the haunch in it.
Roast
Place the haunch a great distance from the fire and allow it to cook for a proportional time.
Remove the paste 35-40 minutes before serving and baste the meat continually.
Bring the haunch closer to the fire before removing the paste and froth it up like venison.
Make the gravy and serve
For the gravy, simmer 1.5 pounds of loin of old mutton in 1 pint of water until reduced by half, seasoning only with salt.
Brown the gravy with a little burnt sugar and serve it with the haunch, ensuring there is plenty of gravy in the meat.
Serve with 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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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 mutton
- Is the main cut of meat, providing the bulk and flavor of the dish.
- Coarse flour or strong paper
- Forms a sealed paste wrapper that protects the meat and keeps its moisture during cooking.
- Loin of old mutton
- Makes the gravy, giving it a rich meat flavor when simmered and reduced.
- Burnt sugar
- Colors the gravy a deep brown and adds a slightly bitter, caramel note.
The step that matters
Bringing the haunch closer to the fire before removing the paste. Moving the meat nearer the heat late in cooking lets the exposed surface brown and crisp. Basting throughout keeps the meat moist while the crust sets.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, milk, flour, sugar, sauce):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, milk, flour, sugar, 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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