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Gigot Au Jus, or a LA Rogale — Leg of Mutton in Gravy

A leg of mutton cooked in a gravy made from its own stock, carrots, onions, and veal or calf’s foot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gigot Au Jus, or a LA Rogale — Leg of Mutton in Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy base

  1. Place the leg of mutton in a stew pan with sliced carrots, chopped onions, calf's foot or knuckle of veal, and a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Cover with water and simmer over low heat.

  3. When the mutton begins to shrink from the bone, remove it from the pan.

  4. Boil the remaining liquid until reduced to about 3 pints.

  5. Strain the liquid through a sieve, pressing the vegetables and veal.

  6. Let the strained liquid cool to a jelly and remove the fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the leg of mutton to the stew pan with the gravy jelly.

  2. Cover and boil gently for 2 hours, ensuring it does not burn or stick.

  3. Serve in a deep dish with the concentrated gravy.

  4. Garnish with lemon slices.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Carrot + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 meat, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in the liquid.
Calf's foot or knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin into the liquid, which sets into a jelly once cooled.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stock as they break down during simmering.
Onions
Add savory depth and sweetness to the stock as they cook down.

The step that matters

Boil gently after returning the mutton to the gravy. A rolling boil can toughen the meat and scorch or stick the jelly to the pan, so the liquid should stay at a gentle simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, veal):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, veal. 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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