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Leg of Mutton Boned and Forced

A leg of mutton is boned, stuffed with forcemeat and seasonings, then roasted and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Boned and Forced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

  1. Turn the mutton leg upside down.

  2. Cut through the skin from the knuckle to the first joint.

  3. Raise the skin from the flesh along the bone.

  4. Cut the skin down to the bone.

  5. Work the knife around the bone until you reach the socket.

  6. Remove the flat bone from the large end.

  7. Loosen the skin around the middle joint carefully to draw out the two bones without dividing them.

Stuff and tie

  1. Fill the cavities with the forcemeat, adding a high seasoning of eschalot, garlic, or onion.

  2. Alternatively, chop the inside of the mutton with bacon, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, mace, salt, nutmeg, and lemon rind or eschalots.

  3. Sew the skin neatly where it was cut.

  4. Tie the knuckle tightly to prevent gravy escape.

  5. Replace the flat bone at the large end.

  6. Use twine to draw the meat edges together.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton on a spit or hanging jack with the knuckle downwards, starting far from the fire.

  2. Baste constantly.

  3. Roast for nearly three hours.

  4. Remove the twine before serving.

  5. Serve hot with rich brown gravy.

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. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Winter savory + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Parsley + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together863 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the rich meat flavour and bulk for stuffing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the chopped stuffing moist during roasting.
Inside of mutton
Chopped and mixed into the stuffing, adding meaty texture and juiciness.
Eschalot
Adds savoury aroma and sharp, sweet onion flavour to the forcemeat.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, green aroma that lightens the rich meat.

The step that matters

Tie the knuckle tightly. A loose tie lets juices and fat escape and drip out of the cavity during roasting, drying the meat and thinning the gravy. Sealing the stuffing in keeps it moist and flavourful.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, garlic, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, garlic, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, nutmeg. 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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