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Braised Leg of Mutton with Vegetables

A braised leg of mutton cooked with vegetables and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 286 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton with Vegetables

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the inside of the boned leg of mutton with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and thyme.

  3. Sew up the leg tightly.

Braise and serve

  1. Braise the leg with vegetables and spices until cooked through.

  2. Remove from heat, reduce the braising liquid, strain, and skim off any fat.

  3. Serve garnished with glazed young carrots, small whole new turnips, cauliflower flowerets, green peas, asparagus points, quartered new potatoes, artichoke bottoms, and other vegetables.

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. Turnip + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + turniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 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 leg
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender and succulent through slow braising.
Vegetables
Add sweetness and moisture as they cook in the braising liquid, and make the dish a complete plate.
Thyme
Adds a savory, herbal aroma that complements the richness of the mutton.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note that deepens the flavor of the meat.

The step that matters

Remove from heat, reduce the braising liquid, strain, and skim off any fat.. Reducing concentrates the flavor of the braising liquid into a sauce, while skimming removes separated fat so the sauce tastes clean and is not greasy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, carrot, turnip, cauliflower):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, carrot, turnip, cauliflower. 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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