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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A marinated, stewed leg of mutton cooked with vinegar, herbs, and spices, served with a thickened sauce and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 mutton with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, mustard, allspice, and sweet herbs.

  3. Pour vinegar over the mutton, cover tightly, and refrigerate for 4-5 days, turning and basting daily.

Stew and serve

  1. In a kettle, bring 4 cups of water to a boil and place an inverted shallow pan over it.

  2. Lay the marinated mutton on the pan, ensuring the water does not touch the meat, and cover tightly.

  3. Stew for 4 hours, adding 1 cup of hot water to the broth to baste the meat.

  4. Once cooked, thicken the remaining liquid with flour and strain it.

  5. Serve the strained sauce with the mutton 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
Its connective tissue softens during long, gentle stewing, giving a tender result.
Vinegar
Its acidity tenderises the meat during the multi-day marinade and adds a sharp note.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and browns slightly on the surface.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a sauce with body.
Mixed sweet herbs
Contributes aroma that infuses the meat during marinating.

The step that matters

Keeping the water off the meat during stewing. The mutton is meant to be cooked by gentle steam from the boiling water below the pan. If water touches the meat, it boils the meat directly, which can make it stringy and wash away the seasoning that has built up during marinating.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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