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Chine of Mutton

A roast mutton with a skin removed, stuffed with herbs and truffles, then roasted until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Chine of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin near the rump without taking it off completely.

  2. Chop the lean ham, truffles, morels, spring onions, parsley, thyme, and sweet herbs finely.

Stuff and roast

  1. Strew the chopped mixture over the mutton where the skin was removed.

  2. Place the skin back over the mutton neatly and tie it with buttered white paper.

  3. Roast until nearly done, then remove the paper and sprinkle grated bread over the top.

  4. Continue roasting until the bread is a fine brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with plain gravy, potatoes, broccoli, French beans, or cauliflower.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that is cooked and carved.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the herb stuffing beneath the skin.
Truffles
Contributes a strong, earthy aroma to the stuffing.
Morels
Add a deep, meaty flavour to the stuffing.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp, browned crust on top of the roast.
Butter
Enriches the paper that wraps the roast and promotes browning of the bread.

The step that matters

Browning the bread topping. The bread is added only after the roast is nearly done, so it has little time to cook. Watch it closely, because the crumbs can scorch before the meat is fully cooked and the surface reaches an even brown.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, truffle, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, truffle, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter. 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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