Name: To Boil a Leg of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt; 2 medium onions, studded with 12 cloves; 1 large bunch of parsley; 1 sprig of thyme; 1 sprig of savory; 4-5 large carrots; 4-5 turnips

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Boil a Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Trim the leg of mutton into a nice shape and wash it without soaking.
Place it in a pot and cover with cold water.

Boil and simmer

Bring to a boil, skimming off the scum until it no longer appears.
Add the salt, onions, parsley, thyme, savory, and carrots.
After 30 minutes, add the turnips.
Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2.5 hours.
Serve with caper, brown cucumber, or oyster sauce.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton: Provides the main cut of meat that becomes tender and flavorful during long, gentle simmering.
Onions: Studded with cloves, they release sweetness and aroma into the cooking water.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as they cook.
Turnips: Add a mild, slightly sweet flavor and soften into tender pieces during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming off the scum while bringing to a boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, clove, parsley, thyme, carrot, turnip):

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, clove, parsley, thyme, carrot, turnip. 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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To Boil a Leg of Mutton