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Braised Leg of Mutton

A braised leg of mutton cooked slowly with bacon, 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: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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

  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, then lard the inside of the boned joint.

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

  4. Sew up the meat and place it in a braising pan with bacon slices underneath and on top.

Braise and finish

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

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

  3. Lift out the meat, strain the gravy, and reduce it to a glaze, brushing it over the meat.

  4. Alternatively, strain the gravy, remove fat, and pour it over the mutton.

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

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

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

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

  3. 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 through long, slow braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the meat as it cooks.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the braising liquid as they soften.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they cook down.
Gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the meat moist and forms 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 break down into gelatin, making the meat tender. Boiling or rushing the heat can toughen the muscle fibres and dry the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot. 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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