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Loin of Mutton, Stewed Like Venison

A slow‑cooked mutton loin stew with onion, port wine, vinegar, thyme, parsley, pepper, sea salt, served with red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Loin of Mutton, Stewed Like Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the loin of mutton in a stewpan.

  2. Pour 2 cups of water over the mutton.

  3. Add the onion stuck with cloves.

  4. Pour in ½ cup of port wine.

  5. Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Add a bunch of thyme and parsley.

  8. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Stew and serve

  1. Let it stew for 3 hours, turning it often.

  2. Boil down the bones to make stock and add to the mutton as needed.

  3. Strain the sauce and pour it over the mutton in the dish.

  4. Serve with red currant jelly.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Loin of mutton
Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender during the long, slow simmer.
Port wine
Adds depth and a sweet, fruity richness to the cooking liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps balance the rich meat.
Onion
Releases savoury sweetness and aroma into the stewing liquid as it cooks.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweet-tart fruitiness that contrasts with the rich mutton.

The step that matters

Long, gentle stewing. Mutton is a tough cut rich in connective tissue. Simmering it slowly for hours, rather than boiling hard, lets collagen break down into gelatin, making the meat tender and the sauce glossy. Turning the meat keeps it evenly cooked and moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, clove, port wine, vinegar, thyme, parsley, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, clove, port wine, vinegar, thyme, parsley, 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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