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Ha Unch of Mutton Roasted

A large haunch of mutton marinated in port wine, seasoned, and roasted with herbs and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Ha Unch of Mutton Roasted

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 the haunch

  1. Wash the haunch with vinegar and wipe it dry daily.

  2. Rub the haunch with pounded pepper and ginger if necessary.

  3. Stick cloves into the knuckle and soak the haunch in port wine for 24 hours, turning frequently.

  4. Trim the knuckle and skin for a neat appearance.

  5. Cover the fat with oiled paper, removing the paper 30 minutes before cooking.

  6. Dredge the haunch lightly with flour and sprinkle with salt.

  7. For a venison flavor, remove the skin, rub the haunch with olive oil, and marinate with vinegar, whole pepper, garlic, and sweet herbs.

  8. Cover the haunch with onion slices and turn daily.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the haunch in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 to 3½ hours, or longer 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. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton haunch
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy with long slow roasting.
Port wine
Soaking adds fruity sweetness and aroma and helps flavour the meat deeply.
Flour
A light dusting helps the surface brown and form a crisp crust.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the surface brown during roasting.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and penetrates the meat during marinating.

The step that matters

Soaking the haunch in port wine. Soaking for the full 24 hours, turning often, lets the wine and cloves penetrate evenly. Uneven turning leaves some areas bland or unevenly flavoured.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, flour, olive, clove, garlic, parsley):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, flour, olive, clove, garlic, parsley. 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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