Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Roast Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the joint
Prepare a good fire for roasting.
Raise the skin of the mutton and skewer it back in place.
Roast
Remove the skin 30 minutes before it's done.
Sprinkle flour and salt on the meat, then baste with butter.
Serve
Serve with French beans, broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower, horseradish, or watercress.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,695 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Mutton
- Its fat renders during roasting, moistening and flavouring the meat.
- Flour
- Coats the surface, helping it brown and form a crisp crust.
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries heat to the surface, promoting browning and moisture.
The step that matters
Remove the skin 30 minutes before it's done. Skin left on keeps the surface from browning and crisping. Removing it near the end lets the fat beneath brown while the meat finishes cooking, so the surface turns golden rather than pale and soft.
“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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