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Mutton, Neck Of, Stewed with Oysters

A stew of mutton neck simmered with oyster liquor, anchovy essence, lemon juice, parsley, and peppercorns, finished with oysters and roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mutton, Neck Of, Stewed with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Wash the mutton to remove blood and dry it.

  2. Brown the meat in a little hot fat in a stewpan.

Stew

  1. Pour in ½ pint of cold mutton stock and skim off the fat.

  2. Add the oyster liquor, anchovy essence, lemon juice, and parsley.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add peppercorns.

  5. Cook until the meat is tender.

  6. Keep the meat hot on a dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Strain and skim the cooking liquid.

  2. Thicken it with white roux.

  3. Add the oysters to the sauce.

  4. Pour it around the meat before serving.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mutton + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Provides the meat that becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the sauce and are cooked gently in it.
White roux
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly body-rich sauce.
Mutton stock
Forms the liquid base that carries flavour and keeps the meat moist as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook until the meat is tender. Neck is a tough cut rich in connective tissue. Slow simmering in liquid, not a hard boil, breaks that tissue down gradually. Boiling too fast toughens the surface and can leave the meat stringy. Check for tenderness before moving on.

“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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