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Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton prepared with vinegar washing, optional sugar or spice rubs, and served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the haunch of mutton in a cool place, washing it with vinegar daily and drying it thoroughly.

  2. If the weather is muggy, rub the haunch with sugar to prevent souring.

  3. If the weather is warm, rub the haunch with pepper and ground ginger to keep flies away.

Roast and serve

  1. When ready to roast, cover the fat with paper and place it at a distance from the fire.

  2. Baste with a mixture of milk and water until the fat begins to drip.

  3. Once the fat drips, change the dish and baste with the drippings.

  4. Half an hour before it's done, remove the paper from the fat and move it closer to the fire.

  5. Baste well and serve with currant jelly.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 meat, whose fat protects and flavours the joint as it roasts.
Milk and water
Basting liquid that moistens the surface and helps the fat drippings brown gently.
Currant jelly
Sweet, tart accompaniment that balances the rich, savoury flavour of the mutton.

The step that matters

Removing the paper and moving the haunch closer to the fire. Paper shields the fat while the meat cooks gently at a distance; removing it near the end lets the surface brown and crisp. Timing matters, since removing it too early or too late changes the finish.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, vinegar, sugar, pepper, ginger, milk. 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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