Name: A Boiled Leg of Mutton with Tongue and Turnips
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton, well-kept and sweet; cold water, enough to cover the mutton; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 2 medium onions, stuck with 12 cloves; 1 large bunch of parsley; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 teaspoon dried winter savory; 4 or 5 large carrots

Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Boiled Leg of Mutton with Tongue and Turnips

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton, well-kept and sweet
cold water, enough to cover the mutton
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 medium onions, stuck with 12 cloves
1 large bunch of parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried winter savory
4 or 5 large carrots

Directions

Prepare

Trim the leg of mutton into a handsome form and wash it without soaking.
Place the mutton in a vessel that fits it closely and cover with cold water.

Boil and season

Set the vessel over a good fire and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that appears.
Once the liquid is clear, add the salt, onions, parsley, thyme, winter savory, and carrots.
Continue to cook until the mutton is tender.

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.

Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together780 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together863 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Clove + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together690 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton: Is the main cut of meat, cooked slowly in water until tender and succulent.
Carrots: Add sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid as it simmers.
Onions: Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as the water comes to a boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and the flavour clean, so the liquid must be skimmed before the aromatics go in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, clove, parsley, thyme, winter savory, carrot):

Shallotfits better
Turnipfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, clove, parsley, thyme, winter savory, carrot. 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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

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A Boiled Leg of Mutton with Tongue and Turnips