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Smothered Leg of Mutton

A leg of mutton cooked slowly with bacon, mushrooms, broth, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,632 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓

Smothered Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Lard the leg of mutton with strips of fat bacon.

  2. Brown the leg in a stewpan.

  3. Place the browned leg in a covered pan.

Braise

  1. Add 12 mushrooms, 1 cup of broth, 1 cup of cape wine, and salt to taste.

  2. Cover and cook until tender.

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. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  2. Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together685 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + winetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, moist cooking.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the lean meat and keeps it moist as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Release their moisture and savory flavor into the braising liquid.
Broth
Provides moisture so the meat braises rather than dries out.
Cape wine
Adds acidity and aroma that flavor the braising liquid and the meat.

The step that matters

Cover and cook until tender. Keeping the pan covered traps steam and liquid around the meat, so it cooks gently in moisture. Cooking too hot or too briefly leaves tough connective tissue unbroken, so the meat must cook slowly until it is fully tender.

“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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