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Boiled Leg of Mutton

A boiled leg of mutton seasoned with salt, pepper, and served with caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Boiled Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the meat, removing all loose fat and bruised portions, and wipe with a damp cloth.

  2. Bring a kettle of water to a boil and immerse the meat.

Cook

  1. Boil rapidly for about 10 minutes, then reduce to a simmer until fully cooked.

  2. Add salt and pepper near the end of cooking.

Serve

  1. Serve with caper sauce.

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

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

  2. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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
Is the main protein; slow simmering turns its connective tissue tender and juicy.
Salt
Seasons the meat and lightly firms its surface when added near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Reducing from a rapid boil to a simmer. A rapid boil toughens meat by squeezing out juices and firming proteins. A gentle simmer cooks the leg through while keeping it tender and moist.

“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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