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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: Mutton and turkey work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 75 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mutton + turkeytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,294 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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.

Flavor stand-ins for the red currant

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

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Orangeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Red currantthe 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. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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