diff --git a/lib/response.js b/lib/response.js
index f965e539dd2..2bfc1026df9 100644
--- a/lib/response.js
+++ b/lib/response.js
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ res.json = function json(obj) {
 
   // content-type
   if (!this.get('Content-Type')) {
-    this.set('Content-Type', 'application/json');
+    this.set('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');
   }
 
   return this.send(body);
@@ -668,14 +668,6 @@ res.header = function header(field, val) {
       ? val.map(String)
       : String(val);
 
-    // add charset to content-type
-    if (field.toLowerCase() === 'content-type') {
-      if (Array.isArray(value)) {
-        throw new TypeError('Content-Type cannot be set to an Array');
-      }
-      value = mime.contentType(value)
-    }
-
     this.setHeader(field, value);
   } else {
     for (var key in field) {
diff --git a/test/res.send.js b/test/res.send.js
index 8547b77648b..803fb7ed2b2 100644
--- a/test/res.send.js
+++ b/test/res.send.js
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ describe('res', function(){
 
       request(app)
       .get('/')
-      .expect('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
+      .expect('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
       .expect(200, 'hey', done);
     })
 
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ describe('res', function(){
 
       request(app)
         .get("/")
-        .expect("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
+        .expect("Content-Type", "text/plain")
         .expect(200, "hey", done);
     })
 
diff --git a/test/res.set.js b/test/res.set.js
index 04511c1c95f..89f17afcc85 100644
--- a/test/res.set.js
+++ b/test/res.set.js
@@ -61,31 +61,32 @@ describe('res', function(){
       .expect(200, '["123","456"]', done);
     })
 
-    it('should not set a charset of one is already set', function (done) {
+    it('should set Content-Type without mime lookup', function (done) {
       var app = express();
 
       app.use(function (req, res) {
-        res.set('Content-Type', 'text/html; charset=lol');
+        res.set('Content-Type', 'text/html');
         res.end();
       });
 
       request(app)
       .get('/')
-      .expect('Content-Type', 'text/html; charset=lol')
+      .expect('Content-Type', 'text/html')
       .expect(200, done);
     })
 
-    it('should throw when Content-Type is an array', function (done) {
-      var app = express()
+    it('should not perform mime lookup for extension-like values', function (done) {
+      var app = express();
 
       app.use(function (req, res) {
-        res.set('Content-Type', ['text/html'])
-        res.end()
+        res.set('Content-Type', 'html');
+        res.end();
       });
 
       request(app)
       .get('/')
-      .expect(500, /TypeError: Content-Type cannot be set to an Array/, done)
+      .expect('Content-Type', 'html')
+      .expect(200, done);
     })
   })