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Braised Leg of Mutton

Braised leg of mutton stuffed with turkey stuffing, cooked in broth, brandy, port, and herbs, served with gravy, forcemeat balls, haricots verts, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton and fill it with turkey stuffing.

  2. Tie the meat into shape.

  3. Place the stuffed leg in a stewing pan and add enough broth to half cover it.

  4. Add brandy, onions, carrot, herbs, peppercorns, parsley, garlic, and port to the pan.

Braise and make the gravy

  1. Cover and cook slowly, keeping it below boiling point until done.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid, thicken it with red currant jelly and anchovy vinegar, and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the mutton garnished with fried turkey forcemeat balls and pour the gravy around it.

  2. Accompany with haricots verts and mashed potatoes.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + carrottop 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

Leg of mutton
Forms the main meat that becomes tender during slow braising.
Broth
Provides moisture and flavour as the liquid for slow braising.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the gravy as it thickens.
Anchovy vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and savoury depth to the gravy.
Port
Adds sweetness and rich aroma to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the braising liquid below boiling point. A gentle, low simmer lets the connective tissue in the mutton break down slowly and keeps the meat moist. A rolling boil toughens the outer fibres and can dry out the meat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turkey, brandy, onion, carrot, parsley, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turkey, brandy, onion, carrot, parsley, garlic. 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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