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Spiced Mutton

A mutton leg or shoulder rubbed with salt, sugar, spices, and shallot, cured for 14 days, then cooked slowly in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Spiced Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Mix all ingredients together.

  2. Rub the mixture well into the meat.

  3. Repeat the rubbing daily for 14 days.

  4. When ready, rinse the meat in warm water.

Cook and serve

  1. Bind the meat into a good shape with strong tape.

  2. Cook gently in good stock or water flavored with vegetables for about 5 to 6 hours.

  3. Press between 2 dishes until cold, then glaze 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the meat that is cured, cooked and pressed into a firm, sliceable shape.
Common salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the curing period.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured meat its characteristic pink color.
Moist sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness and moisture to the cure.

The step that matters

Repeating the rubbing daily for 14 days. Salt and cure must penetrate evenly through the thick cut over many days. Skipping rubs leaves uneven curing, so some areas may spoil or taste harsh.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove. 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.

More spiced mutton recipes

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