Skip to main content
Main

Haunch of Mutton Roasted

A haunch of mutton roasted with port wine, pepper, ginger, and served with currant jelly and a port wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton Roasted

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

  1. Wash the haunch with vinegar and wipe it daily.

  2. Rub with pounded pepper and ginger if necessary.

  3. Stick cloves in the knuckle.

  4. Soak the haunch in port wine 24 hours before roasting, turning it frequently.

  5. Trim the knuckle and skin to make the joint neat.

Roast

  1. Cover the fat with oiled paper, removing it ½ hour before done.

  2. Dredge lightly with flour and sprinkle freely with salt.

  3. Roast for 3 to 3½ hours at 400°F (200°C), longer if very cold or if well done is desired.

Serve

  1. Serve with currant jelly and a sauce of port wine, spice, and gravy.

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. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  2. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton haunch
Forms the main joint of meat, which becomes tender and juicy during long roasting.
Port wine
Soaking adds flavour and aroma, and its sugars help the surface brown.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps the outer layer brown and crisp during roasting.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savoury roasted meat.

The step that matters

Removing the oiled paper. The paper shields the fat from fierce heat early on. Removing it half an hour before the end lets the surface brown and crisp, so timing matters.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, pepper, ginger, flour, sauce):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, pepper, ginger, flour, sauce. 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipesCurried MuttonCurried Mutton9 recipes