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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A marinated and stewed leg of mutton flavored with vinegar, spices, and herbs, served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all rough fat from the mutton and place it in a deep dish.

  2. Rub the mutton with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, mustard, allspice, and mixed herbs.

  3. Pour vinegar over the mutton, cover tightly, and refrigerate for 4-5 days, turning and basting daily.

Stew and serve

  1. In a kettle, bring 1 quart of water to a boil and place an inverted shallow pan over it.

  2. Lay the mutton on the pan, cover the kettle tightly, and stew for 4 hours without letting the water touch the meat.

  3. Add hot water to the remaining pickle and baste the mutton with it.

  4. When done, thicken the liquid with flour, strain through a fine sieve, and serve with the meat and currant jelly.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews over steam.
Vinegar
Acidity in the pickle softens and flavours the meat during the long marinating period.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and savoury spices.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweet-tart fruitiness that contrasts with the rich, savoury meat.

The step that matters

Keep the meat above the water while stewing. Steam cooks the mutton gently and keeps it moist; if the water touches the meat, it boils and the meat can become waterlogged and stringy, losing its texture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, pepper, mustard, allspice, vinegar, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, pepper, mustard, allspice, vinegar, flour. 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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