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Leg of Mutton Stewed

A stew made from a leg of mutton, onions, carrot, vinegar, and seasonings, baked then simmered.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Stewed

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Beat the leg of mutton well and rub it with a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Grease a baking pan with butter.

  3. Place sliced onions, bay leaves, sliced carrot, vinegar, water, salt, and pepper in the bottom of the pan.

Brown and stew

  1. Lay the mutton in the pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) until browned, basting often with the pan juices.

  2. Once browned, transfer the mutton to a stew pan with all the sauce and vegetables.

  3. Cover closely and simmer slowly for two hours, adding a little water if the gravy dries out.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the mutton, skim the gravy, and strain it over the meat.

  2. Optionally, add a stewed cucumber in the gravy.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Carrot + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Onions
Break down during cooking to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances the rich meat.
Carrot
Softens and adds subtle sweetness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly with covered pot. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton into tender meat. Boiling hard or letting the gravy dry out would toughen the meat and scorch the sauce, so the lid and occasional added water matter.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, onion, carrot, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, onion, carrot, vinegar, pepper. 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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