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Braised Leg of Mutton

Braised leg of mutton with bacon, carrots, onions, savory herbs, and olive-shaped fried potatoes, served with thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Line the bottom of a thick iron kettle or stew-pan with 2 slices of bacon.

  2. Place the sliced carrots, onions, and savory herbs over the bacon.

  3. Put the leg of mutton on top, cover with the remaining bacon slices, and pour in the water.

Stew and season

  1. Cover tightly and stew gently for 4 hours, basting occasionally with the juices.

  2. Season with salt and pepper when the meat begins to tenderize.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy, thicken with flour until brown, and pour some over the meat.

  2. Serve the remaining gravy in a tureen.

  3. Garnish the dish with fried olive-shaped potatoes.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Is the main cut of meat that becomes tender through slow, moist stewing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that enriches the juices as they cook.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they soften.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid as they soften.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Keeping the stew gently simmering. Gentle, low heat over a long time breaks down connective tissue in the meat slowly; boiling vigorously toughens the muscle fibres and can dry the meat. Covering tightly keeps moisture in the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, pepper, flour, potato, olive, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, pepper, flour, potato, olive, butter. 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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