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Leg of Mutton Marine

A leg of mutton marinated with salt, pepper, onions, shallots, cloves, bay leaves, vinegar, and red wine, then baked and served with cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Marine

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Marinate

  1. Pierce the leg of mutton in several places with a knife and place it in a large earthenware dish.

  2. Add salt, whole peppercorns, sliced onions, shallots, cloves, bay leaves, vinegar, and red wine.

  3. Marinate for 2 to 3 days, turning the leg twice a day.

Roast and serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Lard the mutton with butter or lard before baking.

  3. Bake the mutton, basting it with the marinade.

  4. Once roasted, collect the gravy and mix in a little sweetened cream to serve hot.

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. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Clove + red winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main meat that the marinade softens and the roasting cooks through.
Red wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the marinade, helping to tenderise the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the marinade, which helps break down the meat's surface fibres.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that keeps the lean mutton moist and rich during roasting.
Sweetened cream
Adds richness and mild sweetness to the gravy served with the meat.

The step that matters

Marinating for 2 to 3 days, turning twice a day. The marinade must reach the whole joint, and regular turning keeps it evenly exposed. Acid and wine work slowly, so a short soak leaves the centre under-flavoured and less tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, shallot, vinegar, red wine, butter, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, shallot, vinegar, red wine, butter, cream. 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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