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Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton seasoned with pepper, ginger, cloves, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Rub with pounded pepper and ginger if necessary.

  3. Stick 2 cloves in the knuckle.

Marinate and roast

  1. 24 hours before roasting, soak the mutton in port wine, turning it frequently.

  2. Stick 2 more cloves in the mutton, cover the fat with paper, and roast it, basting with a mixture of port wine and butter.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 cut of meat, cooked whole so its fat and juices baste the joint as it roasts.
Port wine
Soaks into the meat during marinating and, with butter, forms a sweet, flavourful basting liquid that helps browning.
Butter
Mixed with port wine for basting, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
Cloves
Stuck into the meat to add a warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Pounded pepper
Rubbed onto the surface to add sharp, peppery aroma and flavour.
Ginger
Rubbed onto the surface to add warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Soaking in port wine 24 hours before roasting. Soaking needs the full day so the wine can penetrate the meat and flavour it evenly. Turning it frequently keeps every side in contact with the liquid, so the flavour is not patchy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, clove, port wine, pepper, butter):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, clove, port wine, pepper, butter. 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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