Skip to main content
Main

Larded Leg Op Mutton

A leg of mutton larded with celery, cucumber, tarragon, bacon, anchovies, herbs, pepper, and salt, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 456 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Larded Leg Op Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Carefully lift and turn back the skin of the leg of mutton without tearing it.

  2. Lard the joint with strips of celery, cucumbers, tarragon, and fat bacon.

  3. Cover the larded surface with a mixture of minced anchovies, minced herbs, pepper, and salt.

  4. Replace the skin and sew it securely over the larded surface.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the leg of mutton on a spit before an open fire.

  2. Serve with its 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. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, and its fat and meat cook down to flavour the joint.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the lean meat from within as it roasts, keeping it moist.
Anchovies
Contributes a salty, savoury depth that blends into the meat and gravy.
Celery
Adds a crisp, fresh vegetal note and moisture where it sits inside the joint.
Tarragon
Contributes a distinctive aromatic, slightly anise-like flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Sewing the skin back over the larded surface. The skin must be secured tightly so the larding and herb mixture stay in place and the lean meat is protected while it roasts over the fire.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, celery, tarragon, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, celery, tarragon, 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes