Why it works: Pork and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Mutton, Nevers Fashion
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton
Bone the saddle of mutton, keeping the tenderloin attached.
Cut the flap short and remove excess fat and sinews.
Lard the mutton with thin strips of fat pork and season with coarse sea salt.
Roll the mutton together and tie it with string.
Braise
Place in a braising pan lined with vegetables and brown lightly.
Moisten with veal stock and simmer for 2 hours.
Finish the gravy as explained for Braised Kernel of Veal.
Serve
Dish up the Carbonade and garnish with glazed carrots.
Pour some gravy around the dish and serve the rest separately.
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.
-
Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
-
Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,394 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Saddle of mutton
- Forms the main cut of meat, which becomes tender through long, moist simmering.
- Thin strips of fat pork
- Larding adds fat inside the lean mutton, keeping it moist and flavourful as it cooks.
- Veal stock
- Moistens the braise and, reduced into the gravy, gives body and savoury depth.
The step that matters
Moisten with veal stock and simmer for 2 hours. The liquid must only simmer gently. Boiling toughens the meat's proteins and can dry the surface, while slow simmering breaks down connective tissue into tender, moist meat.
“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.
More braised mutton recipes
You might also like
Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.