Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Roasted Leg 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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Season the leg of mutton with salt and pepper.
Place the mutton in a roasting pan and add a little water.
Roast and serve
Roast for 10 minutes at high heat to seal in the juices.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (175°C) and continue roasting until cooked to your preference.
Let the meat rest before carving.
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.
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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, whose juices and tenderness depend on the roasting.
The step that matters
Reduce the oven temperature after the initial high-heat roast. The 10-minute high-heat roast sears the outside to help seal in juices. Lowering the heat afterward lets the interior cook gently, so the meat does not dry out or burn on the surface before it reaches the desired doneness.
“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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