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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A leg of mutton marinated with spices and vinegar, then stewed and 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

Marinate

  1. Remove all rough fat from the mutton and place it in a deep dish.

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

  3. Pour the vinegar over the meat. Cover tightly.

  4. Refrigerate for 4-5 days, turning and basting daily.

Stew

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a kettle.

  2. Place an inverted shallow pan over the boiling water. Lay the marinated meat on the pan.

  3. Ensure the water does not touch the meat. Cover tightly.

  4. Stew for 4 hours.

  5. Add 1 cup of hot water to the remaining marinate to baste the meat.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the liquid with flour.

  2. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  3. Serve the strained liquid with the meat.

  4. Serve with currant jelly as a relish.

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)
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long marinating and stewing.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps break down the meat's tough connective tissue.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a richer sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and the savoury spices.

The step that matters

Keep the water from touching the meat during stewing. Meat in direct contact with boiling water can toughen and lose flavour into the pot. Holding it above the water lets it cook gently by steam, 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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