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Braised Boned Leg of Mutton

Braised boned leg of mutton stuffed with bacon, bread crumbs, mushrooms, and vegetables, served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Boned Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the leg

  1. Bone the leg of mutton.

  2. Remove the knuckle entirely.

  3. Fill the cavity with stuffing.

  4. Turn the meat at the knuckle end.

  5. Sew up both openings.

  6. Bind the leg into a compact shape with broad tape.

Braise

  1. Heat 2 oz. of dripping in a stewpan.

  2. Add the sliced carrot, onions, celery, turnip, herbs, and peppercorns.

  3. Place the leg on top.

  4. Fry for about 20 minutes.

  5. Cover the meat with a well-buttered paper.

  6. Add ½ pint of stock.

  7. Braise in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1.5 hours, basting constantly and adding more stock as needed.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once cooked, remove the leg.

  2. Take off the tape.

  3. Brush the leg with liquid glaze or reduced gravy.

  4. Strain the gravy from the pan.

  5. Remove fat from the gravy.

  6. Mix the strained gravy with ½ pint of ordinary gravy or stock and 1 teaspoon of red-currant jelly.

  7. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  8. 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton leg
Forms the main meat that becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stuffing and the meat.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb stuffing so it holds together in the cavity.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, giving the stuffing body and moisture.
Dripping
Fat for frying the vegetables and meat, adding browning and flavour.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma into the braising liquid as they cook.

The step that matters

Basting and adding stock during the braise. The leg is cooked in a moist oven for about 1.5 hours. Basting keeps the surface from drying, and topping up stock prevents the pan from running dry and scorching, while the slow moist heat breaks down connective tissue into tender meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, bread, mushroom, carrot, celery, turnip):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, bread, mushroom, carrot, celery, turnip. 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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