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Shoulder of Mutton

A roasted shoulder of mutton basted with a sauce of anchovies, port wine, gravy, mushroom ketchup, walnut ketchup, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Shoulder of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Keep the shoulder of mutton as long as possible without spoiling.

  2. Half roast the mutton and score it on both sides.

Make the anchovy sauce

  1. Melt the chopped anchovies in a basting ladle, adding pepper and salt.

  2. Place a clean dish under the roast and baste with the hot sauce made from melted anchovies, port wine, rich gravy, mushroom ketchup, walnut ketchup, and cayenne.

  3. Baste constantly until the mutton is done.

Serve

  1. Dish the mutton on a hot plate rubbed with garlic.

  2. Skim the sauce and pour it over the mutton.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of mutton
Is the main meat, which cooks through and becomes tender with long roasting and basting.
Anchovies
Melt into the sauce, adding a deep savoury, salty richness to the basting liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce as it reduces.
Rich gravy
Provides body and meaty flavour, helping the sauce coat the roast.
Walnut ketchup
Adds a dark, concentrated savoury tang that deepens the sauce's flavour.

The step that matters

Baste constantly until the mutton is done. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and carries the sauce's flavour into the meat, while the juices and sauce brown and concentrate. Letting the surface dry out stops this and can leave the meat dry.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, port wine, mushroom, ketchup, walnut, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, port wine, mushroom, ketchup, walnut, clove. 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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