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Mutton a LA Venison

A mutton joint marinated in wine and vinegar, then cooked like venison.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mutton a LA Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the mutton thoroughly and ensure it is of good quality and freshly killed.

  2. Rub the meat with black pepper, ground cloves, allspice, ground ginger, and ground bay leaves.

Marinate

  1. Marinate the meat in red wine and vinegar for three days, turning and rubbing it daily.

  2. Quickly wash the meat in warm water and dry it well.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the mutton like venison, serving with the same sauces and accompaniments.

  2. Alternatively, cook it as regular mutton with ordinary gravy.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, and the long marinade tenderises its lean meat.
Red wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the marinade, helping soften the meat's surface.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the marinade, which helps break down tough muscle fibres.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that seasons the meat's surface during the rub.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the gamey character of the meat.

The step that matters

Marinate the meat in red wine and vinegar for three days, turning and rubbing it daily.. The acid in wine and vinegar slowly softens muscle fibres and carries spice flavour into the meat. Turning and rubbing daily keeps every surface in contact with the marinade, so the result is even rather than patchy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, clove, allspice, red wine, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, clove, allspice, red wine, vinegar. 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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