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Gigot Au Jus, or a LA Regale — Leg of Mutton in Gravy

A leg of mutton stewed with carrots, onions, veal, and salt, finished in a reduced gravy jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gigot Au Jus, or a LA Regale — Leg of Mutton in Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Place the leg of mutton in a stew pan with sliced carrots, onions, calf’s foot or veal, and salt.

  2. Cover with water and simmer over low heat.

  3. When the mutton begins to shrink from the bone, remove it from the pan.

  4. Boil the remaining liquid until it is reduced to about 3 pints.

  5. Strain the liquid through a sieve, pressing the vegetables and veal.

  6. Let the liquid cool until it becomes a jelly.

  7. Remove the fat from the jelly.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the leg of mutton to the stew pan with the gravy jelly.

  2. Cover and boil gently for 2 hours, ensuring it doesn't burn or stick.

  3. Serve in a deep dish with the concentrated gravy and garnish with lemon slices.

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

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

  2. Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Carrot + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf’s foot or veal knuckle
Adds gelatin, so the strained liquid sets into a jelly when chilled.
Onions
Flavour the broth with sweetness and aroma as they simmer down.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they release their flavour.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the jelly. Fat chilled on top of the gravy jelly is easy to leave in or to remove incompletely. Skimming it cleanly keeps the gravy clear and prevents a greasy mouthfeel once the jelly is reheated and served.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, veal):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, veal. 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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