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Braised Leg of Mutton

A slow‑cooked leg of mutton wrapped in bacon and spices, simmered with onions, carrots, herbs, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,443 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton as far as the first joint.

  2. Roll strips of bacon in mixed spice and minced savoury herbs.

  3. Lard the inside of the boned leg.

  4. Optionally, fill the cavity with highly seasoned forcemeat.

  5. Sew up the meat.

Braise

  1. Place it in a braising pan with bacon slices underneath and on top.

  2. Add onions, carrots, bay leaves, savoury herbs, bones, and gravy.

  3. Stew the meat gently for 4 to 5 hours, keeping embers on top or placing it in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Finish and serve

  1. After cooking, lift out the meat.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Reduce it to a glaze.

  4. Brush the meat with the glaze or pour the strained gravy over it.

  5. Optionally, serve with boiled white beans or a mild ragout of garlic or eschalots.

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 + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy during long, gentle braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the meat as it cooks slowly.
Onions
Break down during braising to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrots
Release sugars during slow cooking, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Gravy
Provides liquid for slow braising, keeping the meat moist and forming the base of the glaze.

The step that matters

Stewing the meat gently for 4 to 5 hours. Low, steady heat lets the tough connective tissue in the mutton slowly break down into gelatin, making the meat tender. Boiling or rushing the cooking would tighten the muscle fibres and leave it dry and tough.

“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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