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Braised Leg of Mutton

A braised leg of mutton cooked slowly with carrots, onions, savory herbs, bacon, and water, served with a thickened gravy and fried potato olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Line the bottom of a thick iron kettle or stewpan with a few slices of bacon.

  3. Layer the sliced carrots, onions, and savory herbs over the bacon.

  4. Place the leg of mutton on top of the vegetables.

  5. Cover the mutton with a few more slices of bacon and pour in ½ pint of water.

Braise and finish

  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.

  3. Once cooked, strain the gravy and thicken it with 1 tablespoon of flour until brown.

  4. Pour some gravy over the meat and serve the rest in a tureen.

  5. Garnish the dish with fried potato olives.

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 meat that becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the meat and vegetables as it cooks.
Onions
Soften and sweeten during stewing, adding depth to the juices and gravy.
Carrots
Release natural sweetness into the braising liquid, rounding out the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the meat and serving spoon.

The step that matters

Season with salt and pepper when the meat begins to tenderize. Salt added too early can draw moisture out of the meat before it tenderizes, while adding it at the right point lets it season the meat and juices evenly. Timing matters because the meat's surface and juices change as it cooks.

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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