Name: Boiled Leg of Mutton with Caper Sauce
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 tablespoon cold water; 1-2 tablespoons capers

Why it works: Flour and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,024 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Leg of Mutton with Caper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the mutton

Place the leg of mutton in boiling water with a little coarse sea salt.
Cook for 15 minutes per pound for rare; increase time for well-done.

Make the caper sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and a pinch of salt until mixed thoroughly.
Add the cold water and pour in boiling water, then boil for 5 minutes.
Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of capers based on your preference.

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.

Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,024 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,637 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + caperstop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together199 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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: Is the main cut of meat that is cooked through by boiling.
Flour: Thickens the butter and water into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Butter: Forms the fat base into which the flour is stirred to make the sauce.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the butter until fully mixed. Flour stirred into melted butter forms a roux that thickens the liquid. If lumps form or the mixture is not fully combined, the sauce will be uneven and lumpy.

“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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Boiled Leg of Mutton with Caper Sauce