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Mutton , Neck Of, Braised

Braised mutton neck with carrots, onions, turnips, celery, parsley, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Mutton , Neck Of, Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and cut off excess fat from the neck of mutton.

  2. Place the mutton in a braising pan or stewpan.

Braise

  1. Add consomme, sliced carrots, onions, turnips, celery, parsley, and peppercorns.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let it simmer for about 1.5 hours.

  3. Baste frequently with the cooking liquid and brown the meat nicely.

Serve

  1. Serve with the vegetables and add salt to taste.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Long slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and moist.
Consomme
Forms the braising liquid that keeps the meat moist and carries flavour into it.
Carrots
Release sweetness into the braising liquid and hold their shape during long cooking.
Onions
Break down during braising, adding sweetness and body to the cooking liquid.
Turnips
Soften during braising and add a mild, slightly sweet flavour to the liquid.

The step that matters

Basting and browning the meat. Basting with the cooking liquid keeps the surface moist, while browning builds roasted flavour through the Maillard reaction. Uneven or pale browning leaves the dish flat in taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley. 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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