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Mutton, Loin Of, Cooked Like Venison

A slow‑stewed mutton loin flavored with woodcock gravy, port wine, onion, peppercorns, herbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton, Loin Of, Cooked Like Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and excess fat from the mutton and bone it.

  2. Boil the woodcock or snipe until tender, then use the gravy to moisten the mutton.

Stew

  1. Place the mutton in a stewpan with the gravy, port wine, onion, peppercorns, minced herbs, and parsley.

  2. Stew gently for about three hours, skimming off any greasy particles frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve very hot with red 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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  2. Port wine + red curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Parsley + red curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together96 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 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

Mutton loin
Forms the main body of the dish; slow stewing turns its tough connective tissue tender.
Port wine
Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the stewing liquid.
Woodcock or snipe
Its boiled gravy gives the mutton a rich, gamey flavour and moisture.
Onion
Releases savoury sweetness and aroma into the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stew gently for about three hours. A gentle simmer breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton slowly; a rapid boil toughens the meat and clouds the gravy. Skimming removes greasy particles that would otherwise make the sauce heavy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, parsley, red currant):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, parsley, red currant. 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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