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Necks of Mutton, Larded and Braized, a L’allemande

Braised mutton necks larded with butter, seasoned with herbs, cooked with sherry or Madeira, 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, Larded and Braized, a L’allemande

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 the necks of mutton.

  2. Lard the trimmed necks.

  3. Marinate the larded necks in a cold marinade for at least 24 hours.

Braise

  1. Place the necks in a braising pan with a drainer.

  2. Garnish the pan with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

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

  4. Cover the pan with buttered paper.

  5. Bring the contents to a boil on the stove.

  6. Cover the pan.

  7. Braise on moderate heat with embers on the lid for about 2 hours.

  8. Baste the necks frequently during braising.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the braised necks to a small baking dish with some broth.

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

  3. Glaze the necks.

  4. Serve garnished with fried potatoes shaped like olives, corks, or balls.

  5. Pour Poivrade sauce underneath the served dish.

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
Main protein; braising slowly turns its connective tissue tender.
Butter
Enriches the braise and the clarified butter adds fat for frying and flavour.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the rich meat during braising.
Stock
Provides liquid and savoury flavour that keeps the necks moist as they braise.
Potatoes
Fried to a crisp exterior, contrasting with the soft braised meat.

The step that matters

Braise on moderate heat. Gentle, sustained heat with a covered pan lets collagen convert to gelatin, making the meat tender. Too much heat toughens the meat and dries the liquid, so basting matters.

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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