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Haunch of Mutton

A roasted haunch of mutton cooked with butter, salt, and a gravy of burnt sugar and currant jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haunch

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

  2. Prepare a paste of coarse flour on strong paper.

  3. Fold the haunch into the paste.

Roast

  1. Set the haunch on a cradle spit at a distance from the fire.

  2. Bring the haunch closer to the fire before removing the paste.

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

  4. Baste the haunch continually.

Make the gravy and serve

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

  2. Brown the gravy with a little burnt sugar.

  3. Serve the gravy in a dish with the haunch.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 cut of meat that is roasted and forms the body of the dish.
Loin of old mutton
Simmered in water to make a seasoned broth that becomes the gravy.
Burnt sugar
Adds colour and a slightly bitter caramel flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Remove the paste 35-40 minutes before serving. Removing the paste too early leaves the meat unprotected and dry, while removing it too late can prevent the surface from browning and crisping as the heat finishes cooking the meat.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, 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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