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Roast Neck of Mutton

Roast Neck of Mutton is a savory dish prepared by roasting a mutton neck with gravy, red‑currant jelly, and buttered bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Neck of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Force out a row of puree between each bone.

  2. Pour plenty of gravy around the mutton, dissolving the red-currant jelly in it.

Roast

  1. Roast for 15 minutes per pound.

  2. Cover the mutton with melted dripping and lay greased paper over it if using an oven.

  3. Baste every 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the paper 30 minutes before finishing and cover the top with buttered bread crumbs.

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 + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and rich as it roasts slowly.
Red-currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich meat and give the gravy a glossy finish.
Gravy
Keeps the meat moist and builds flavour in the pan as it reduces around the roast.
Melted dripping
Adds fat that conducts heat to the surface and helps it brown.
Buttered bread crumbs
Form a golden, crisp topping as the butter browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Remove the paper 30 minutes before finishing. The greased paper traps steam and protects the meat while it cooks. Removing it late lets the surface dry and brown, and the crumbs crisp without the meat drying out.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread. 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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