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Loin of Mutton

A roasted and stewed mutton loin stuffed with hare‑style filling, served in a gravy with optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Loin of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Hang the mutton until tender and bone it.

  2. Season the meat with ground pepper, allspice, mace, nutmeg, and cloves.

  3. Prepare a stuffing as for hare and cover the meat with it.

  4. Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Bake and stew

  1. Half bake it in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat and place the gravy in a stew‑pan.

  3. Flour the meat and add it to the stew‑pan.

  4. Stew until almost ready, then add port wine, ketchup, anchovy, and lemon pickle.

  5. Serve in the gravy with jelly‑sauce and fresh mushrooms if desired.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through the hanging and slow cooking.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as the meat stews, giving it body.
Port wine
Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the gravy.
Ketchup
Adds sweet and acidic savouriness to the gravy.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Half bake the rolled meat slowly. Baking the rolled loin slowly at a low temperature cooks the interior gently so it stays moist and tender. Cooking it too fast would tighten the muscle fibres and dry the meat before the stew begins.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, clove, flour, port wine. 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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