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Braised Leg of Mutton

A braised leg of mutton stuffed with mushroom and veal forcemeat, cooked with vegetables and stock until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Peel and chop the mushrooms, then mix them with the veal forcemeat.

  2. Bone the mutton and fill it with the stuffing, then bind it with tape.

  3. Slice the vegetables and place them in the bottom of a stew pan.

Braise and glaze

  1. Lay the stuffed mutton on top of the vegetables and pour in the stock.

  2. Cover the pan tightly and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 hours.

  3. Remove the mutton and boil the stock until it thickens to a glaze, then pour it over the mutton.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 body of the dish and becomes tender through long, moist cooking.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury flavour to the veal stuffing.
Veal forcemeat
Forms the filling that stays moist and holds the stuffed mutton together.
Strong stock
Provides the braising liquid, which turns to a glaze when reduced.
Carrot
Sweetness and aroma in the braising base.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Cover the pan tightly and cook at 400°F (200°C) for 3 hours. A tight cover keeps steam and moisture around the meat so it braises rather than dries out. Long, gentle moist heat breaks down connective tissue, making the mutton tender.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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