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Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton served with onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,531 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the haunch of mutton with salt.

  3. Roast the mutton in the oven until cooked to your preference.

Serve

  1. Serve with onion sauce.

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. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Haunch of mutton
Forms the main cut of meat, providing the dish's richness and the bulk of the serving.
Onion sauce
Adds moisture and a savory, sweet onion flavour to balance the rich meat.

The step that matters

Roasting to the right doneness. Mutton is easy to overcook, which dries out the muscle fibres and toughens the meat. Checking for doneness before the meat is fully cooked lets the juices stay within the cut and keeps it tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce. 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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