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Leg of Mutton Braised

A braised leg of mutton cooked slowly with lardoons, bacon, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, calf's feet, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Trim the leg of mutton.

  2. Lard it inside with lardoons.

Braise

  1. Place bacon, fat, carrots, onions, garlic, laurel, thyme, and parsley in a deep stewpan.

  2. Add the leg of mutton.

  3. Surround it with the dressings.

  4. Add the calf's feet.

  5. Add salt.

  6. Add pepper.

  7. Moisten with stock or water.

  8. Cover with buttered paper.

  9. Cover the stewpan.

  10. Cook slowly for five hours.

  11. Turn the meat twice.

  12. Continue until tender.

Finish the gravy

  1. Dish the meat carefully.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Remove excess grease.

  4. Check if the gravy is too thin.

  5. Reduce the gravy until rich and smooth.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Laurel + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,444 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Clove + laureltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 cut of meat that becomes tender and juicy during slow braising.
Lardoons
Add fat and savoury flavour that melts into the meat as it cooks.
Calf's feet
Release gelatine into the stock, giving the gravy body and a glossy, rich texture.
Onions
Build a sweet, savoury base that flavours the braising liquid and gravy.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and gravy.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that flavours the braise and the resulting gravy.

The step that matters

Reduce the gravy until rich and smooth. Gravy that is reduced too little stays thin and watery, while over-reduction can make it too salty or sticky. Gelatine from the calf's feet helps it thicken and gloss as it reduces.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, clove, garlic, laurel, thyme, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, clove, garlic, laurel, thyme, parsley. 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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