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To Dress a Loin of Mutton Like Venison

A braised mutton loin cooked with water, onion, cloves, port wine, vinegar, thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt, finished with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

To Dress a Loin of Mutton Like Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and bone the loin of mutton.

Braise

  1. Place it in a stewpan with water, onion stuck with cloves, port wine, and vinegar.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt.

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

  4. Make gravy from the bones and add it to the mutton as needed.

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

Mutton loin
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich braising liquid.
Onion
Releases flavour into the braising liquid as it stews.

The step that matters

Let it stew for three hours, turning it often. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue in the meat so it becomes tender. Turning it often helps it cook evenly and keeps the liquid in contact with all sides.

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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