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Haunch of Mutton Roasted

A roasted haunch of mutton marinated in port wine, seasoned with herbs and spices, served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton Roasted

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

  1. Wash the haunch with vinegar and wipe it dry.

  2. Rub the haunch with pounded pepper and ginger if necessary.

  3. Stick cloves in the knuckle and soak the haunch in port wine for 24 hours, turning frequently.

  4. Trim the knuckle and skin to make the joint neat.

Roast

  1. Cover the fat with oiled paper, removing it 30 minutes before cooking.

  2. Dredge lightly with flour and sprinkle with salt.

  3. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 to 3.5 hours, longer if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve with currant jelly and a sauce of port wine, spice, and gravy.

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. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton haunch
Provides the large cut of meat that becomes the main dish, with its fat cap and joint shaping the roast.
Port wine
Soaks into the meat, adding moisture, sweetness and a deep flavour that carries into the sauce.
Flour
Dredged lightly over the surface, it helps the outside brown and form a crisp, flavourful crust.
Olive oil
Oils the paper covering the fat, helping the fat and surface cook without sticking or drying out.

The step that matters

Roasting the haunch for the full time. A large joint must reach the centre fully cooked and tender, so the cook should judge doneness by internal temperature rather than time alone, since size and bone affect how long it takes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, flour, olive, clove, garlic, parsley):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, flour, olive, clove, garlic, parsley. 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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