Name: Braised Leg of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; Turnips, peeled and parboiled; Force-meat or dressing (optional)

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 ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton
Turnips, peeled and parboiled
Force-meat or dressing (optional)

Directions

Beat the leg of mutton well.
Follow the instructions for Plain Braise to ensure tenderness, or for Beef a la Mode, omitting the larding.
If using force-meat, remove the bone and fill the space with it.
Serve with the parboiled turnips, cooking them together with the mutton for at least 1 hour.

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.

Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + turniptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,558 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Turnip + meattop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together930 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).