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Gigot I’EtoufFatle. — Leg of Mutton H V Etouffade.

A leg of mutton stewed with bacon, spices, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Gigot I’EtoufFatle. — Leg of Mutton H V Etouffade.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton and lard it with large pieces of bacon.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, garlic, and spices, then tie it neatly with kitchen twine.

Braise and serve

  1. Place it in a saucepan and cover with thin slices of bacon, carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme.

  2. Moisten with a little salted water and boil for 5 hours.

  3. Optionally, add a glass of white wine and some shredded parsley to the saucepan while cooking.

  4. Remove the twine and place the mutton on a dish, pouring a little of the strained gravy over 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Is the main cut of meat that becomes tender and flavorful during long cooking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat as it cooks.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften in the liquid.
Onions
Release sugars as they cook slowly, adding depth and sweetness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Boil for 5 hours in a little salted water. The liquid is only a small amount, so it can evaporate or scorch if the heat is too high. A gentle, steady simmer keeps the connective tissue breaking down slowly, so the meat turns tender instead of tough or dry.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, garlic, thyme, carrot, onion, white wine):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cuminfits less well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, garlic, thyme, carrot, onion, white wine. 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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