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Necks of Mutton

Braised mutton necks with vegetables, sherry, and Poivre sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Necks of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the necks of mutton and lard them closely.

  2. Marinate the necks in a cold marinade for at least 24 hours.

  3. Place the necks in a braising pan with a drainer.

Braise

  1. Garnish with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

  2. Moisten with sherry or Madeira and stock.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and boil on the stove.

  4. Put the lid on and braise on moderate heat for about 2 hours, basting frequently.

Glaze and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish with some broth and dry in the oven for a few minutes.

  2. Glaze and serve garnished with fried potatoes and Poivre sauce.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton necks
Form the main meat that becomes tender during long, slow braising.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid and helps build flavour.
Stock
Provides moisture and body to the braising liquid around the meat.
Carrot, onion, and celery
Aromatic vegetables that flavour the braising liquid and the sauce.
Butter
Enriches the dish with fat and helps keep the paper-covered meat moist.

The step that matters

Braise on moderate heat with frequent basting. Gentle, steady heat slowly breaks down the connective tissue in the necks, making them tender. Too much heat can toughen the meat or dry out the surface, so the liquid should stay at a gentle simmer and the meat should be basted often to keep it moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, clove. 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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