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Shoulder of Mutton

A rolled mutton shoulder wrapped in bacon and stuffed, braised with broth, wine, and spices, served with a savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Shoulder of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Bone the shoulder of mutton and wash it.

  2. Dry it and flatten it on a clean board.

  3. Dust the meat with pepper and salt.

  4. Layer thin slices of bacon on top.

  5. Spread turkey stuffing evenly over the bacon.

  6. Roll the meat tightly.

  7. Secure it with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. Melt butter in a stew-pan.

  2. Brown the rolled mutton on all sides.

  3. Add broth, chopped onions, garlic, sliced carrot, peppercorns, mace, celery, sugar, salt, wine, and brandy.

  4. Braise until cooked through.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the mutton to a hot dish.

  2. Brown the surface with a hot iron.

  3. Strain the gravy and remove fat.

  4. Flavor with Madeira, red currant jelly, lime juice, and chili vinegar.

  5. Boil briefly.

  6. Pour the gravy around the mutton.

  7. Serve, garnished with glazed pickling onions.

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  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

Mutton shoulder
Forms the main body of the roast and becomes tender during slow braising.
Butter
Fat for browning the rolled meat, adding richness and a golden surface.
Bacon
Adds fat and salty, savoury flavour that bastes the lean mutton as it cooks.
Bombay onions
Break down during braising, sweetening and thickening the gravy's flavour base.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and gloss to the gravy, balancing its savoury depth.
Madeira
Adds fortified wine sweetness and caramelised aroma to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the rolled mutton on all sides. Browning creates Maillard flavour and colour on the meat surface before braising. Pale, unbrowned meat yields a flat, greyish gravy and crust.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, turkey, butter, onion, garlic, carrot. 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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