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Braized Leg of Mutton, a LA Provencale

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 mutton

  1. Bone the leg of mutton, starting at the thigh bone and detaching the meat with a knife.

  2. Remove the thigh bone and saw off the shank, scraping the end of the remaining bone.

  3. Interlard the interior with seasoned lardoons or bacon, then fill with Provençal stuffing and sew the opening closed.

Braise

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

  2. Moisten with sherry and stock, cover with buttered paper and a lid.

  3. Bring to a boil on the stove, then reduce heat and simmer gently for about 4 hours, moistening frequently.

Finish and serve

  1. Once done, transfer to a baking sheet with some cooking liquid and keep warm.

  2. Strain the remaining liquid, remove fat, clarify it, and reduce to half glaze.

  3. Add the glaze to Gasconne sauce and serve with the mutton, garnished with tomatoes or mushrooms.

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
Provides the main cut of meat, which becomes tender through long, slow braising.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Stock
Provides moisture and savory flavor to the braising liquid and the reduced glaze.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the braising liquid.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for about 4 hours. A gentle simmer breaks down the connective tissue in the mutton slowly, making it tender and moist. A hard boil toughens the meat and dries out the liquid, so the heat must stay low and the liquid topped up.

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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