Why it works: Mutton and red wine work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 117 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Roast Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Roast
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roast the leg of mutton for 2 hours.
Halfway through, remove the fat from the roast.
Baste the meat with the drippings.
Add 10 minutes of cooking time for each additional pound of mutton.
Make the gravy
For gravy, mix as for roast beef or add currant jelly and red wine.
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 + red winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together117 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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 that is roasted and carved.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness to balance the savoury drippings in the gravy.
The step that matters
Removing the fat halfway through roasting. Fat that is left on the roast can render unevenly and make the drippings greasy, so removing it partway through helps the meat brown and the gravy taste cleaner.
“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.