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Necks of Mutton

A braised dish of mutton necks cooked with vegetables, spices, and sherry, served with fried potatoes and Poivrade sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Necks of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Trim and remove the upper part of the fillet from the necks of mutton without loosening it from the bones.

  2. Lard the necks closely and marinate in a cold marinade for at least 24 hours.

Braise

  1. Place the necks in a braising pan with chopped carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

  2. Moisten the necks with sherry or Madeira and stock.

  3. Cover the pan with buttered paper.

  4. Bring to a boil on the stove.

  5. Cover and braise on moderate heat for about 2 hours, basting frequently.

Glaze and serve

  1. Transfer the necks to a small baking dish with some of the cooking liquid.

  2. Place the dish in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 minutes to dry the larding.

  3. Glaze the necks.

  4. Serve garnished with fried potatoes and Poivrade sauce.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 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 necks
Provide the main meat that becomes tender during long, slow braising.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Stock
Supplies moisture and savory flavour to the braising liquid.
Carrot, onion and celery
Build aromatic flavour base that infuses the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Braise gently with frequent basting. Moderate heat and a covered pan let connective tissue break down slowly into gelatin, keeping the meat tender. Boiling hard would toughen the surface and dry the meat, so the liquid must stay at a gentle simmer and be spooned over the necks regularly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, clove. 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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