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
Hang the haunch of mutton a good distance from the fire.
Roast gently for about 3.5 hours, basting frequently.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Dredge with flour.
Finish and serve
Prepare gravy similar to roast beef or a rich brown gravy.
Serve with currant jelly and garnish with lemon slices.
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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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
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Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Large cut of meat that is the main dish, cooked slowly to stay tender.
- Flour
- Dredged on the surface to help form a crust that browns during roasting.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the outside of the meat and helps build a flavorful surface.
The step that matters
Roast gently and baste frequently. Gentle heat cooks a large cut evenly without drying the outside, and regular basting keeps the surface moist so it browns rather than burns.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, lemon):
- Limefits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangefits better
- 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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