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Leg of Mutton , with Cauliflower and Spinage

A boiled leg of mutton served with cauliflower and spinach in a buttery gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton , with Cauliflower and Spinage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the leg of mutton and boil it in a cloth.

  2. Boil the cauliflowers in milk and water until tender.

  3. Pull the cauliflowers into sprigs and stew them with butter, pepper, salt, and a little milk.

  4. Stew the spinach in a saucepan with gravy, butter, and flour.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the mutton in the center of a dish, surround it with spinach, and top with cauliflower.

  2. Pour the butter from the cauliflower over the dish to create a smooth cream appearance.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Leg of mutton
Provides the main protein and the substantial meat at the centre of the dish.
Cauliflowers
Soften when boiled and stewed, giving the topping a tender, mild texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the cauliflower as it simmers and stews.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the stewed vegetables a smooth, glossy finish.
Spinach (in the method)
Stews in gravy and flour to form a thickened, savoury bed for the mutton.
Flour
Thickens the gravy around the spinach so it clings and holds together.

The step that matters

Pour the butter from the cauliflower over the dish. Butter poured over hot dishes melts into a glossy coating. If the butter is too cool or the cauliflower is drained poorly, the sauce turns greasy or patchy rather than smooth.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, milk, butter, pepper, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, milk, butter, pepper, flour. 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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