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Boned Leg of Mutton

A boned leg of mutton stuffed with ham, onion, parsley, mushrooms, veal, and seasoned, then roasted or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boned Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Begin by boning the leg of mutton, starting at the knuckle end and cutting out the bone carefully. Remove any flesh from the bones and set it aside for the stuffing.

Stuff and shape

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham, onion, parsley, mushrooms, veal, salt, and pepper to create the stuffing.

  2. Fill the cavity where the bone was with the stuffing.

  3. Sew up the skin tightly with coarse thread.

  4. Shape the leg into a long, straight form.

Cook and serve

  1. Roast it on a spit or bake it in the oven.

  2. Baste frequently while cooking.

  3. Serve with a sauce of pureed onions or tomatoes.

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

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 its meat is what is cooked and served.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat to the stuffing, moistening and flavouring the surrounding lean meat.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savour to the stuffing.
Veal or beef
Adds body and meaty flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Sew up the skin tightly. A loose or poorly closed seam lets the stuffing spill out and the cavity cook unevenly. Tight sewing keeps the filling enclosed and the joint holding its shape while it roasts.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, parsley, mushroom, veal, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, parsley, mushroom, veal, 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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