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Braised Leg of Mutton

A slow‑cooked leg of mutton braised with bacon, onion, carrot, herbs, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Wipe the leg of mutton and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Lard both sides with thin strips of fat bacon.

  3. Sauté in bacon fat until browned on all sides, turning frequently.

Braise

  1. Place in a deep dish and add onion, carrot, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, and peppercorns.

  2. Pour in 4 cups of boiling water, cover closely, and cook at 300°F (150°C) for 4 hours.

  3. Remove the meat to a hot serving dish and strain the cooking liquid, discarding the fat.

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of fat until browned, then add 3 tablespoons of flour and continue browning.

  2. Gradually pour in 1½ cups of the strained stock while stirring constantly.

  3. Serve the gravy from a gravy boat.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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, becoming tender and moist through long, covered braising.
Fat bacon
Lardoons add richness and moisture to the lean meat as it cooks.
Flour
Browned in fat, it thickens the stock into a smooth gravy.
Onion
Flavours the braising liquid, adding savoury sweetness as it softens.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in fat for the gravy. Cooking flour in fat until nutty develops flavour and colour and cooks out raw starch taste. Stirring constantly prevents scorching and lumps when the stock is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, parsley, clove, flour):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, parsley, clove, flour. 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.

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