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Braized Leg of Mutton, a LA Provencale

A braised leg of mutton cooked with herbs, spices, sherry, and stock, served with a clarified sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braized Leg of Mutton, a LA Provencale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

  1. Remove the meat from the leg of mutton, starting at the thigh bone, and detach it carefully.

  2. Cut the sinewy ligatures.

  3. Remove the thigh bone completely.

  4. Interlard the interior with seasoned lardoons or fat bacon.

  5. Fill the interior with Provencal stuffing.

  6. Sew the opening closed with small twine.

Braise

  1. Place the leg in a braising pan with carrots, turnips, celery, cloves, mace, faggots, and garlic.

  2. Moisten the leg with sherry and stock.

  3. Cover the pan with buttered paper and a lid.

  4. Bring to a boil on the stove.

  5. Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 4 hours, basting frequently.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Transfer the cooked leg to a baking sheet with some cooking liquid and keep warm.

  2. Strain the remaining liquid.

  3. Remove fat from the liquid.

  4. Clarify the liquid.

  5. Reduce the liquid to half glaze.

  6. Serve the mutton garnished with tomatoes or mushrooms.

  7. Pour the sauce around it.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 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

Leg of mutton
Forms the main meat that becomes tender and succulent during long, gentle braising.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and the final sauce.
Stock
Provides the moist cooking liquid that gently cooks the meat and later forms the sauce.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aromatic flavour into the braising liquid, enriching the sauce.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and deepens during the long braise.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 4 hours. Boiling vigorously toughens muscle fibres and drives off moisture. A gentle simmer lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin, keeping the mutton tender and juicy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, garlic. 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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