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Devilled Mutton

A lamb shoulder prepared by cutting gashes, filling with spiced butter or dripping, and cooking in a greased paper bag.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Devilled Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut large gashes in the meat overnight.

  2. Fill the gashes with dripping or butter mixed with pepper, salt, dry mustard, and lemon juice if desired.

  3. Leave the meat until nearly dinner time.

Cook

  1. Place the meat in a greased paper bag and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Monitor the cooking time as it depends on the weight of the meat.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold shoulder of lamb
The main cut; its fat and juices supply most of the flavour and body of the dish.
Dripping or butter
Fat that carries the seasoning into the gashes and helps keep the meat moist as it cooks.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the fat.

The step that matters

Monitor the cooking time. The meat's weight determines how long it needs, so the stated 15 minutes may not suit every joint. Checking doneness prevents undercooking or drying out.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, pepper, mustard):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, pepper, mustard. 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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