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Gigot II l’Etouffade. — Leg of Mutton a L' Etouffade.

A slow‑cooked leg of mutton stewed with bacon, spices, herbs, carrots, onions, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Gigot II l’Etouffade. — Leg of Mutton a L' Etouffade.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut a small opening in the knuckle of the leg of mutton and lard it with fat bacon, seasoning with salt, fine spices, parsley, green onions, and shallots.

  2. Line an earthen pot with slices of bacon and tie up the leg of mutton.

Braise and serve

  1. Add carrots, parsley, green onions, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and brandy to the pot.

  2. Cover the pot and cook over low heat for three hours.

  3. Once done, strain off the fat from the sauce 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 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

Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat that becomes tender during long, slow braising.
Fat bacon
Larding adds fat that bastes the lean meat and keeps it moist as it cooks.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like aroma that builds the flavour of the braising liquid.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften in the liquid.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Cover and cook over low heat for three hours. Slow, gentle heat under a lid lets the tough connective tissue in the mutton break down into gelatin, making the meat tender. Higher heat or lifting the lid can dry the meat and toughen it.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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