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To Dress Mutton Venison-fashion

A method of curing a leg of mutton with wine, salt, and drying to produce a venison-style dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Dress Mutton Venison-fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the leg of mutton like a haunch of venison while it is warm.

  2. Remove the bloody vein.

  3. Pour the red wine over the mutton, turning it four or five times a day for five days.

  4. Dry the mutton thoroughly with a clean cloth.

  5. Hang it in the air with the thick end up for five days, drying it morning and night to prevent mustiness.

Roast

  1. When ready to roast, cover it with paper and paste as you would venison.

  2. Roast for four hours.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + red winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Red wine + flourtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main roast; its long marinating and drying turn it into a venison-style meat.
Red wine
Acidity and aroma from the marinade flavour the meat and help tenderise its surface.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the crust and paste during roasting.
Flour
Forms the paste that seals the outside of the meat during roasting.

The step that matters

Drying the mutton before hanging. Thorough drying with a clean cloth and daily airing prevent surface moisture from encouraging mould and mustiness during the long hang, which would spoil the 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.

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