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Mutton to Imitate Venison

A mutton stew simmered with onion, bay leaves, mace, herbs, allspice, gravy, port wine, mushroom ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Mutton to Imitate Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gravy

  1. Cut the mutton into thin slices with some fat attached.

  2. Stick a few cloves into the onion and place it in a stewpan with bay leaves, mace, sweet herbs, allspice, and clear gravy.

  3. Boil gently for an hour.

Make the sauce

  1. In another stewpan, melt butter and stir in flour until browned.

  2. Strain in a small amount of the prepared gravy and mix smoothly.

  3. Add the rest of the gravy and stir until boiling and thickened.

  4. Add the mutton, port wine, mushroom ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, red‑currant jelly, and salt to the sauce.

  5. Keep the stewpan on low heat without boiling the gravy again.

Serve

  1. Boil and drain the spinach, chop it, and mix with butter.

  2. Form a wall of spinach on a hot dish, pile the meat in the center, pour the sauce around, and serve.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Port wine + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long gentle simmering.
Butter
Melted with flour to form a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Browned in butter to form a roux that thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Red-currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the savory, rich sauce.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, body, and fruity aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the sauce below a boil after adding the meat and wine. Once the sauce is thickened, boiling again can make the flour-thickened sauce break or turn thin and grainy, and can toughen the meat proteins. Gentle low heat keeps the sauce smooth and the meat tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, allspice, butter, flour, port wine, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, allspice, butter, flour, port wine, mushroom. 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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