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Leg of Mutton

A roasted leg of mutton marinated in herb-infused stock, butter, and sour cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Marinate

  1. Boil the marinade stock with thyme, bay leaf, basil, garlic, parsley, cloves, and peppercorns for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the marinade cool, then pour it over the leg of mutton and marinate for 24 hours, turning occasionally.

  3. Drain the leg and wipe it with a cloth.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the leg in a roasting pan with butter and roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. After 30 minutes, baste with marinade stock and sour cream, and continue roasting while basting frequently.

  3. Once cooked, strain the cooking stock and reduce it until thickened, then pour it over the leg.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Basil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Basil + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Is the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during the long marinade and slow roast.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the pan, encouraging browning on the outside of the roast.
Sour cream
Adds acidity and fat to the basting liquid, keeping the surface moist and creating a rich sauce.
Marinade stock
Carries herbs and aromatics into the meat and, reduced, forms the thickened pan sauce.

The step that matters

Basting the roast. Basting with the marinade and sour cream keeps the surface moist and adds flavour. Frequent basting also helps the outside brown evenly. Basting too late or too rarely can leave the surface dry.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, cream, thyme, basil, garlic, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, cream, thyme, basil, garlic, parsley. 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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