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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A stewed leg of mutton marinated in vinegar, spices, and mustard, served with 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

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove all rough fat from the mutton.

  2. Place the mutton in a deep dish.

  3. Rub the mutton thoroughly with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, English mustard, allspice, and sweet herbs.

  4. Pour vinegar over the mutton.

  5. Cover the mutton tightly.

  6. Refrigerate the mutton for 4 to 5 days.

  7. Turn and baste the mutton daily with the remaining marinate.

Stew and serve

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

  2. Place an inverted shallow pan over the boiling water.

  3. Lay the marinated mutton on the pan.

  4. Cover the kettle tightly.

  5. Stew the mutton for 4 hours.

  6. Ensure the water does not touch the meat.

  7. Add 1 cup of hot water to the remaining marinate.

  8. Baste the meat with the hot water.

  9. Thicken the cooking liquid with flour.

  10. Strain the thickened liquid through a fine sieve.

  11. Serve the mutton with 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
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle stewing.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the meat and adds tang.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light, smooth sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Keep the water from touching the meat while stewing. Steam from the covered kettle cooks the mutton gently. If water touches the meat, it boils rather than steams, which can make the meat tough and stringy and wash away the seasoning.

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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