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Roast Leg of Mutton or Lamb

A roasted leg of mutton or lamb seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, baked with hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Roast Leg of Mutton or Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the leg of mutton or lamb thoroughly.

  2. Season the leg with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and flour.

Roast

  1. Place the leg in a pan and pour a little hot water into the pan.

  2. Bake the leg in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 hours.

  3. Baste the leg frequently to keep the meat moist.

  4. If the oven is too hot, cover the leg with another pan.

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. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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

Leg of mutton or lamb
Is the main cut of meat that becomes the dish's tender, savoury centre.
Flour
Coats the surface, helping it brown and form a crust during roasting.
Hot water
Adds moisture to the pan, creating steam and keeping the meat from drying out early.

The step that matters

Baste the leg frequently. Spooning pan juices over the meat keeps its surface moist as it roasts, helping prevent drying and promoting an even, golden colour.

“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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