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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A pickled and stewed leg of mutton seasoned with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, pepper, mustard, allspice, herbs, and vinegar, served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove all rough fat from the mutton.

  2. Place the mutton in a deep dish.

  3. Rub the salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, English mustard, allspice, and sweet herbs into the meat.

  4. Slowly pour the vinegar over the meat.

  5. Cover the meat tightly.

  6. Refrigerate for 4 to 5 days, turning and basting daily.

Stew and serve

  1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a kettle.

  2. Place an inverted shallow pan over the boiling water.

  3. Lay the meat on the pan without letting it touch the water.

  4. Cover the kettle tightly and stew for 4 hours.

  5. Add 1 cup of hot water to the remaining pickle and baste with it.

  6. Thicken the liquid with flour.

  7. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  8. Serve the meat with the strained liquid and currant jelly.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton (in the method)
Is the main meat that is pickled, then gently stewed until tender.
Vinegar
Acidifies the meat during pickling, helping flavour penetrate and tenderise the surface.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and helps browning of the surface.
Flour
Thickens the strained pickle liquid into a light sauce.
English mustard
Adds sharp pungency that complements the vinegar and seasons the meat.

The step that matters

Keeping the meat above the boiling water. Meat lying in water would boil and turn stringy and waterlogged. Steaming on an inverted pan over the water cooks it gently in vapour, keeping it moist and tender.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, sugar, pepper, mustard, allspice, vinegar, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, sugar, pepper, mustard, allspice, vinegar, 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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