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Gigot H l’Eau. — Leg of Mutton Boiled.

A leg of mutton boiled with bacon, anchovies, herbs, and vegetables, served with a reduced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Gigot H l’Eau. — Leg of Mutton Boiled.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the leg of mutton with bacon and anchovies, then tie it with kitchen twine.

  2. Place the mutton in a pot just large enough to hold it, and add water and stock.

Boil and strain

  1. Bring to a boil, then add parsley, green onions, garlic, shallots, cloves, onions, carrot, and parsnip.

  2. Once the meat is cooked, strain the broth and skim off the fat.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Reduce the broth over heat until it becomes a strong gravy.

  2. Pour the gravy over the mutton 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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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 gentle simmering.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that slowly melts into the meat and broth.
Anchovies
Add savory depth to the broth without tasting distinctly fishy.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth that becomes the gravy.
Stock
Forms the flavorful liquid base that is reduced into the gravy.

The step that matters

Reduce the broth over heat until it becomes a strong gravy. Reducing concentrates flavor and thickens the liquid as water evaporates. Heating too gently takes too long, while heating too hard can scorch the bottom of the pan and make the gravy bitter.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, onion, garlic, shallot, carrot, parsnip):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, onion, garlic, shallot, carrot, parsnip. 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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