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Leg of Mutton, in the Gascon Fashion

A leg of mutton roasted with garlic and anchovies, served with a broth reduction.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton, in the Gascon Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Lard the leg of mutton with garlic and anchovies.

Roast and make the sauce

  1. Roast the mutton on a spit.

  2. Boil the garlic in several waters until nearly cooked, then drain.

  3. Combine broth and meat drippings in a saucepan, adding meat jelly if available.

  4. Add the drained garlic to the saucepan, stew down, and serve over the roasted mutton.

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. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,530 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Mutton + garlictop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together673 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Clove + meattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 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
Provides the main cut of meat that is roasted and served.
Garlic
Boiled to soften its sharpness, then stewed into the sauce for a mellow, savory flavor.
Anchovies
Inserted into the meat to add a salty, savory depth that melts into the roast.
Broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and savory body.
Meat drippings
Concentrated roasting juices that add rich meaty flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the garlic in several waters until nearly cooked, then drain. Repeated boiling in fresh water draws out much of the garlic's harsh, pungent compounds, so it turns mild and sweet. Stopping at nearly cooked lets it finish softening gently in the sauce without falling apart or becoming bitter.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, garlic, meat):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, garlic, meat. 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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