Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton
Remove the shank bone from the leg of mutton.
Soak the joint in warm water (about the temperature of new milk) for 5 minutes, then wipe it clean.
Place the joint in a pot and cover it with cold water.
Boil and simmer
Set the pot over low heat and allow it to come to a boil slowly (about 40 minutes).
Skim off any scum that rises as it boils.
Cover the pot and let it simmer gently for about 2.5 hours.
Serve
Garnish the dish with turnips cut in half or slices.
Serve with mashed turnips, carrots, and potatoes, along with caper sauce.
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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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together562 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,878 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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, which becomes tender and juicy through slow simmering.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and earthy flavour as a side vegetable, served both garnish and mashed.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and colour to the accompanying vegetables served with the meat.
- Potatoes
- Provide starch and body as a mashed side that soaks up the cooking flavours.
The step that matters
Bring the pot to a boil slowly and skim the scum. Gentle heating lets the water warm the joint evenly, and skimming removes the foam of coagulated proteins and impurities so the broth stays clear and the meat cooks cleanly instead of tightening.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, carrot, sauce):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, carrot, sauce. 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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