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Cold Leg of Mutton

A cold leg of mutton seasoned with salt and pepper, served with mustard and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cold Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the cold leg of mutton.

  2. Season the meat with coarse sea salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Slice the mutton thinly before serving.

  2. Serve with mustard and vinegar on the side.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton leg
Provides the main cooked meat that is sliced and served cold.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat surface and brings out its savoury flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that contrasts with the rich meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that cuts through the fat of the cold meat.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cabbagefits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, vinegar. 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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