Why it works: Mutton and meat work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 936 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Leg of Mutton with Caper Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the mutton
Place the leg of mutton in a pot of boiling water.
Boil for 5 minutes to coagulate the surface juices.
Skim the pot as soon as it boils and ensure there is enough water to cover the meat.
Add cold water to reduce the temperature to 158°F (70°C) for rare or 165°F (74°C) for well done.
Maintain a gentle simmer until the meat is tender.
Save the broth
Strain the pot liquor into a jar and let it cool to remove the fat for kitchen use.
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.
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Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,167 recipes
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Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,087 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leg of mutton
- Is the main cut of meat, cooked gently until tender in the simmering water.
- Boiling water
- Cooks the meat evenly and carries away surface juices that would otherwise coagulate unevenly.
The step that matters
Holding the simmer at the target temperature. Meat cooked at a gentle simmer stays tender and juicy, while a hard boil toughens the muscle fibres and can overcook the outside before the centre reaches the chosen doneness. Adding cold water brings the pot down to the target temperature for rare or well done.
“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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