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Haunch of Mutton Dressed to Resemble Venison

A roasted haunch of mutton marinated in red wine and butter, served with brown gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton Dressed to Resemble Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the mutton for a proper time until it is sweet.

  2. Rub the mutton with butter.

  3. Wash the mutton with a mixture of milk and water.

  4. Soak the mutton in a bottle of red wine for 24 hours, with the back part down.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton over a quick fire, basting it with the soaking liquid and butter.

  2. Roast for about 1.5 hours until done.

  3. Serve with good brown gravy and 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Red wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 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

Mutton haunch
Provides the meat that is roasted and becomes tender and flavourful over the long wine soak.
Red wine
Soaks into the meat, adding flavour and acidity that helps tenderise the surface.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting moisture and gentle browning on the roasted surface.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and tartness to the sauce served alongside the rich, savoury meat.

The step that matters

Roasting over a quick fire while basting. Basting with the soaking liquid and butter keeps the surface moist and encourages browning, while a hot fire sears the outside. Too little basting can leave the meat dry.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, red wine, butter, milk, vinegar. 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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