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Cold Leg of Mutton

Cold minced mutton seasoned with pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, served with poached eggs and fried bread hearts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cold Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mince

  1. Chop the mutton.

  2. Warm the chopped mutton in a small saucepan with just enough stock to moisten it, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Season the mince with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Optionally rub the bottom of the pan with garlic for extra flavor.

  5. Add a small amount of Worcestershire sauce to the mince, being careful not to overdo it.

Poach and serve

  1. Poach the eggs, allowing one for each person.

  2. Ensure the dish and cover are hot before serving.

  3. Neatly pile the mince in a dish and place the poached eggs on top, cutting them to expose the yolk surrounded by the white.

  4. Garnish with fried bread hearts and a small piece of parsley in each.

  5. Sprinkle finely chopped parsley over the eggs and add a pinch of pepper in the center of each egg.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the rich, savory meat base of the dish.
Eggs
Poached yolks add richness and moisture when cut into the mince.
Stock
Moistens the mince so it stays tender without drying out.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds a savory, tangy depth that enhances the meat flavor.

The step that matters

Warm the mince without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and dries out the mince, so it should be warmed gently in just enough stock to keep it moist and tender.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, sauce, egg, bread, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, sauce, egg, bread, 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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