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Leg of Mutton Braised

A braised leg of mutton cooked with bacon, herbs, onion, and a butter‑flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the knuckle from the leg of mutton.

  2. Divide it into 2 or 3 pieces.

  3. Trim off any excess fat from the leg.

  4. Half roast the leg.

Braise

  1. Place the leg and knuckle in a stewpan with the trimmings and bacon.

  2. Add thyme, marjoram, other herbs, and the onion.

  3. Add the butter rolled in flour.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Stew gently, shaking occasionally.

  6. Turn the meat while cooking.

  7. Once tender, remove the meat.

Finish the gravy

  1. Skim the gravy.

  2. Strain it.

  3. Boil the gravy until reduced to a glaze.

  4. Serve.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 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
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and rich through slow stewing.
Bacon
Its rendered fat adds richness and savoury flavour to the stewing liquid.
Butter
Rolled in flour, it thickens the gravy and gives it a smooth, glossy body.
Onion
Stuck with cloves, it lends aromatic sweetness to the gravy as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stew gently, shaking occasionally. Slow, gentle heat breaks down connective tissue in the mutton into tender meat. Boiling fast toughens the muscle fibres and can make the gravy cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, thyme, marjoram, clove, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, thyme, marjoram, clove, butter, flour, 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.

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