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Leg of Mutton Stuffed

A leg of mutton is hollowed, stuffed with a mixture of meat, suet, shallot, mushrooms, and parsley, then braised and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose a leg of mutton that has been aged well.

  2. Remove the bone and meat from the leg, leaving the shank.

  3. Make a stuffing by finely chopping the removed meat, beef suet, shallot, mushrooms, and parsley.

  4. Season the stuffing with salt and pepper, then fill the cavity where the bone was removed.

  5. Shape the mutton to look like a whole leg and cover it with layers of fat bacon.

Braise and serve

  1. Braise the mutton until cooked through, then lightly glaze it.

  2. Serve with ravigotte 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is cooked through.
Beef suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich during cooking.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory flavour to the stuffing.
Fat bacon
Covers the outside in layers, adding fat that keeps the meat moist and flavourful while it braises.

The step that matters

Braise the mutton until cooked through. A large cut needs long, gentle, moist heat so the connective tissue softens and the centre cooks fully. Stopping too early leaves tough meat, while overcooking dries it out.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, shallot, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, shallot, mushroom, pepper. 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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