Why it works: Mutton and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Boiled Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the mutton
Place the leg of mutton in 6 quarts of boiling water.
Add ½ cup of rice to the pot.
Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
Boil for 1 hour and 15 minutes, adding 5 minutes for each additional pound over 8.
Serve
Serve with caper sauce.
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 + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 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
- Long, gentle boiling breaks down its connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and easy to slice.
The step that matters
Boil for the correct time for the weight. The cooking time depends on the weight of the leg. Too short leaves the meat tough and underdone near the bone, while too long dries out the outer meat and makes it stringy.
“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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