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Saddle of Mutton

A roasted saddle of mutton seasoned with salt and flour, served with gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,077 recipes. The science ↓

Saddle of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the meat has been well hung.

  2. Have the butcher remove the flap and chump end.

  3. Skin the meat.

  4. Skewer it back on to prevent scorching. If not skewered, cover with a sheet of paper before roasting.

Roast

  1. Roast for 2.5 hours.

  2. Baste the meat.

  3. Dredge it with flour.

  4. Sprinkle a pinch of salt 20 minutes before it's done.

Serve

  1. Serve with good gravy and currant jelly.

  2. Place the kidneys at the end when serving.

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. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes
  2. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  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

Saddle of mutton
Main cut of meat; its fat and muscle give the roast its flavour and texture.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps form a browned, crisp crust.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury richness to the sliced meat.
Currant jelly
Its sweetness and acidity balance the rich, fatty flavour of the mutton.

The step that matters

Skewer the meat back or cover it with paper. Without skewering or a paper cover, the thin exposed edges and surface can scorch in the oven before the thick joint is cooked through.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Red currantfits better
  3. Pumpkinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour. 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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