Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Roast Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Hang the leg of mutton in a cool place for up to 6 weeks in winter, or as long as it stays sweet.
Using a rolling pin, beat the leg all over until it feels tender.
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the leg in a baking pan with the knuckle turned up; skewer if necessary.
Rub the leg all over with flour and insert a clove of garlic into the hock-end if desired.
Dot the top with drippings or butter. Add a large lump in the pan.
Roast
Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes until it begins to brown.
If it browns too much, cover with an inverted pan and baste frequently.
After 30 minutes, add up to ½ cup of boiling water to the pan if needed.
Cook for 10 minutes per pound, totaling about 1 hour and 40 minutes for a 10-pound leg.
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.
-
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + garlictop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,149 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 meat, whose tenderness is improved by hanging and beating before roasting.
- Flour
- Coats the surface so it browns and forms a crust during roasting.
- Drippings or butter
- Adds fat that promotes browning and carries flavor across the surface of the meat.
- Garlic
- Adds aroma to the meat as it cooks around the clove.
The step that matters
Watching the browning and adding water. Flour and fat brown quickly at high oven heat, so the surface can darken too much before the interior cooks. Covering the leg with an inverted pan and basting slows surface browning, while a little added water keeps the pan from drying out and scorching.
Swap the clove
The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, garlic, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, garlic, butter. 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.
More roast leg of mutton recipes
You might also like
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Haricot Mutton59 recipes
Mutton Soup56 recipes
Curried Mutton9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.