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Roasted Leg of Mutton a LA Portugaise

A roasted leg of mutton seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with stuffed tomatoes and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Roasted Leg of Mutton a LA Portugaise

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.

Prepare

  1. Cut off the shank-bone and trim the leg of mutton well.

  2. Make an incision at the first joint.

  3. Season the leg with salt and pepper.

  4. Rub the butter over the leg.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a pan at 350°F (175°C) for one hour, basting occasionally with the gravy and turning it once in a while.

  2. Remove from the oven, place on a hot dish, and serve with three stuffed tomatoes and three timbales of cooked rice, straining the gravy over.

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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 cut of meat that is roasted and carved for the dish.
Butter
Coats the surface of the meat, adding richness and helping it brown as it roasts.

The step that matters

Basting and turning during the roast. Basting with the pan gravy and turning the leg keep the surface moist and let it brown evenly. Without this, the outside can dry out or scorch before the inside is cooked.

“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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