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Roast Leg of Mutton

A roasted leg of mutton seasoned with garlic or onion, butter or lard, water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Roast Leg of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim the leg by cutting off loose skin and scraping the flesh from the lower end of the bone for at least an inch.

  2. Lay the leg flat on the table and beat it into shape with the flat side of a chopper, being careful not to break the bone.

  3. Rub the leg with a little butter, melt the remainder in a baking tin, and place the leg in the tin.

Roast

  1. Put the tin in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Baste the leg from time to time, adding 1 tablespoon of water and more butter or lard if the fat dries up, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Cook for less than an hour in a good oven.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is roasted and served.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that coats the meat, helping it brown and stay moist in the oven.
Water
Added during basting to create steam and moisture, helping prevent the fat and surface from drying out.

The step that matters

Basting. Fat and water added during roasting keep the surface from drying out and scorching. Basting also spreads the fat evenly, supporting even browning and a moist interior.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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