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Mutton Jelly

A gelatinous dish made by simmering mutton shanks, beef, bread crust, and seasonings in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the shanks well after soaking in water for several hours.

  2. Place all ingredients in a saucepan with the water.

Cook and season

  1. Simmer gently for 5 hours.

  2. Season with salt.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  2. Skim off the fat when cold.

  3. Warm as much as needed or serve cold.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shanks
Release collagen and flavour into the water, which sets to a jelly as it cools.
Lean beef
Adds meaty flavour to the broth during the long simmer.
Toasted bread crust
Adds a toasted, browned aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 5 hours. A gentle simmer extracts gelatin and flavour from the meat without clouding the liquid. A hard boil breaks up fat and proteins, leaving a cloudy, greasy jelly.

“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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