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Loin of Mutton Stuffed, and Served with High Gravy

A mutton loin stuffed with suet, almond paste, breadcrumbs, herbs, and eggs, roasted and served with a thickened broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Loin of Mutton Stuffed, and Served with High Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loin

  1. Trim the fat from the loin of mutton and flatten it with a rolling pin.

  2. Make stuffing by mixing mutton suet, almond paste, bread crumbs, parsley, herbs, pepper, salt, cayenne, nutmeg, lemon peel, and eggs.

  3. Spread the stuffing evenly over the inner side of the mutton, roll it up, and skewer it.

Roast and make the gravy

  1. Roast the mutton at a distance from a good fire for 1.5 hours, basting continually.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the bones, black onion, shallot, garlic, carrot, celery, and water; stew for 3 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and add baked flour to thicken.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 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

Mutton suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when rolled and roasted.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Sweet almonds
Add richness and a nutty flavour to the stuffing.
Baked flour
Thickens the strained broth into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Roast the mutton at a distance from a good fire, basting continually. Gentle, indirect heat cooks the thick rolled joint through without scorching the outside before the centre is done. Frequent basting replaces moisture at the surface so the meat stays juicy and browns evenly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg. 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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