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Roast Neck of Mutton

Roast neck of mutton seasoned with salt and pepper, baked until tender, served with optional tomatoes or red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Neck of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Ask your butcher to chop off the chine bone and cut the long bones at the joints.

  2. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  3. Season the neck of mutton with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the mutton in the oven at a distance until heated through, about 30 minutes.

  2. Move the mutton closer to the heat and baste it regularly for 30 to 45 minutes until done.

  3. Serve with baked or roasted tomatoes, plain gravy, or red currant jelly if desired.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Tomato + red curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  5. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Provides the main meat, whose fat and connective tissue keep the roast moist and flavorful as it cooks.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat through and helps form a savory crust on the surface.

The step that matters

Move the mutton closer to the heat and baste it regularly. Starting far from the heat gently warms the meat through, then moving it closer browns the surface. Regular basting keeps the exterior from drying out and promotes even browning.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, red currant):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, red currant. 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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