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Leo of Mutton

Neck of mutton boiled with small onions, peppercorns and rice, served with turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Leo of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If boiling, cut the chine-bone and strip the ribs halfway down.

  2. Chop off the ends of the bones about four inches.

  3. Do not remove the skin until after boiling for a whiter fat.

Boil and serve

  1. In a pot, combine the neck of mutton, small onions, peppercorns, and rice with water.

  2. Boil until cooked through.

  3. Serve with turnips.

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. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Is the main cut of meat that gives the dish its body and flavour during boiling.
Rice
Thickens the cooking liquid slightly as its starch releases during boiling.
Small onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid as they soften.

The step that matters

Leaving the skin on until after boiling. The record says the skin should stay on during boiling so the fat stays whiter. Removing it early could expose the fat to the water and change its colour, so the skin is kept until the meat is cooked.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice. 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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