Why it works: Port wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,499 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Haunch of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and roast
Cut the mutton in a venison style.
Spit the mutton and roast it at 400°F (200°C) for 2.5 hours.
Finish and serve
Half an hour before serving, remove the paper and baste with port wine.
Froth the mutton with butter and color it like venison.
Serve with a similar sauce in a boat.
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.
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Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together344 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton hind quarter
- Forms the main cut of meat, and its fat keeps the joint moist during long roasting.
- Port wine
- Its sugars brown on the surface and add sweetness and deep color to the glaze.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the surface and helps it brown and gloss as it finishes.
The step that matters
Basting with port wine near the end. Port contains sugars that darken quickly at high oven heat. Basting only in the final half hour gives a glaze and color without scorching the surface.
“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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