Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Leg of Mutton, in the Style of Kretchmer
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the leg
Remove the thin skin from the leg of mutton and take out the bones if not done by the butcher.
Mix together the butter, salt, pepper, parsley, leeks, and a little flour to form a roll.
Insert the roll into the center of the leg where the bone was.
Coat and cook
Rub the leg with salt and pepper, then cover it with oil or warm butter.
Roll the leg in fine bread crumbs to adhere as much as possible.
Sprinkle with flour and place it over the fire, turning gently.
Do not baste; the coating will form a crust that preserves the juices.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together759 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together328 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Leg of mutton
- Forms the main body of the dish and is the meat that cooks through over the fire.
- Fresh butter or sweet lard
- Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing roll inside the meat.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a coating that browns and crisps on the outside of the leg.
- Flour
- Helps the stuffing hold together and adds to the browning of the outer coating.
The step that matters
Do not baste. Basting washes off the crumb and flour coating and lets moisture escape. The coating forms a crust that holds in the meat's juices, so opening it up dries the mutton out.
Swap the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper, parsley, flour, bread):
- Shallotfits better
- Carrotfits about as well
- Leekthe original
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, parsley, flour, bread. 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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