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Mutton Roll

A rolled mutton shoulder stuffed with bacon and turkey stuffing, braised in broth and wine, served with a gravy and pickled onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Mutton Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Flatten the boned mutton on a clean board and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Layer thin slices of bacon over the mutton, then spread turkey stuffing evenly on top.

  3. Roll the mutton tightly and secure it with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. Melt butter in a stew pan and brown the mutton roll on all sides.

  2. Add broth, onions, garlic, carrot, peppercorns, mace, celery, sugar, salt, wine, and brandy to the pan.

  3. Braise the mutton until cooked through.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Transfer the mutton to a hot dish and brown the surface with a hot iron.

  2. Strain the gravy, remove fat, and flavor with Madeira, red currant jelly, lime juice, and chili vinegar.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it around the mutton before serving.

  4. Garnish with glazed small white onions and serve with potatoes à la maître d'hôtel.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shoulder
Forms the main body of the roll and gives rich, well-flavored meat that becomes tender when braised.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the lean mutton as it cooks.
Butter
Browns the outside of the roll, building color and roasted flavor before braising.
Broth
Provides the liquid for braising and forms the base of the gravy.
Chablis or sauterne
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, helping flavor the gravy.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the outside of the roll. Searing the rolled meat on all sides before braising builds color and roasted flavor through the Maillard reaction. Skipping or rushing it leaves the gravy pale and flat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, turkey, butter, onion, garlic, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, turkey, butter, onion, garlic, carrot. 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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