Name: Leg Op Mutton, Roasted
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; coarse sea salt; water; flour; black pepper; currant jelly

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 ↓

Leg Op Mutton, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Wipe the leg of mutton very dry and dredge it with flour and black pepper.
Cut off the knuckle, remove the thick skin, and trim off the piece of flank.
Place the mutton in a dripping pan and baste it with the drippings.
Baste the meat every 10 minutes while roasting.
Serve with gravy and currant jelly on the side.

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.

Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes
Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pepper + curranttop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,345 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).