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Braized Leg of Mutton, a LA Provexcale

A braised leg of mutton stuffed with Provençale seasoning, cooked with root vegetables and aromatics, served with a clarified sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braized Leg of Mutton, a LA Provexcale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

  1. Bone the leg of mutton, starting at the thigh bone and detaching the meat.

  2. Remove the thigh bone entirely and saw off the shank.

  3. Interlard the interior with seasoned lardoons or fillets of ham.

  4. Stuff the leg with Provençale stuffing.

  5. Sew the opening closed with twine.

Braise

  1. Place the leg in a braising pan with carrots, turnips, celery, cloves, mace, faggots, and garlic.

  2. Moisten the leg with sherry and stock.

  3. Cover the pan with buttered paper and a lid.

  4. Bring the liquid to a boil on the stove.

  5. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 4 hours, moistening frequently.

  6. Once done, transfer the leg to a baking sheet with some cooking liquid and keep warm.

Finish the sauce and serve

  1. Strain the remaining liquid.

  2. Remove fat from the liquid.

  3. Clarify the liquid.

  4. Reduce the liquid to half glaze.

  5. Serve the mutton garnished with tomatoes or mushrooms and pour the Gasconne sauce underneath.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton leg
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow braising.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and sauce.
Stock
Supplies the moist liquid that braises the meat and becomes the base of the sauce.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows during long simmering.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid and the reduced sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for about 4 hours. A gentle simmer breaks down the tough connective tissue in the mutton slowly. Boiling hard would toughen and dry the meat, so keep the liquid barely moving and moisten the leg often.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, garlic):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, 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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