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Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton served with currant jelly and sliced lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Roast

  1. Hang the haunch of mutton a good distance from the fire.

  2. Roast gently for about 3.5 hours, basting well.

  3. When nearly done, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and dredge with flour.

Serve

  1. Prepare gravy similar to roast beef or a rich brown gravy.

  2. Serve with currant jelly in glasses or currant jelly sauce.

  3. Garnish with sliced lemon.

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. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes
  4. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton haunch
Provides the meat that is roasted slowly and carved for serving.
Flour
Dredged over the surface to help form a crisp, browned crust.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and tartness that balances the rich, fatty meat.

The step that matters

Roast gently and baste well. Slow, moderate heat lets the connective tissue and fat render evenly so the meat stays tender and juicy. Basting keeps the surface moist and prevents it drying out or burning over the long roast.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, lemon. 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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