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Haunch of Mutton Roasted

Roasted haunch of mutton coated in coarse flour paste, served with burnt sugar gravy and currant-jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and currant work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haunch

  1. Wash the haunch with warm milk and water or vinegar if necessary.

  2. Cover the haunch with a paste made of coarse flour on strong paper.

  3. Place the haunch far from the fire.

  4. Allow time for the paste to set.

Roast and baste

  1. Remove the paste 35-40 minutes before serving.

  2. Baste the haunch continually.

  3. Bring the haunch closer to the fire.

  4. Froth the haunch up.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Simmer the loin of mutton in 1 pint of water until reduced to half, seasoning only with salt.

  2. Brown the gravy with a little burnt sugar.

  3. Serve the gravy with currant-jelly sauce.

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. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Haunch of mutton
Is the main joint of meat that is roasted and served.
Coarse flour
Forms a paste crust that shields the meat from direct heat while it cooks.
Loin of mutton
Simmered with water and salt to produce a reduced, savoury base for the gravy.
Burnt sugar
Adds colour and a slightly bitter caramel flavour to the gravy.
Currant-jelly sauce
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that contrasts with the rich mutton.

The step that matters

Bring the haunch closer to the fire. Moving the joint from the cooler position to the hotter one must follow the paste removal and basting, so the surface browns and cooks through evenly rather than drying or scorching.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, milk, vinegar, sugar, sauce):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, milk, vinegar, sugar, 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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