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Leg of Mutton a LA Venison

A pickled and stewed leg of mutton seasoned with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, mustard, allspice, herbs, and vinegar.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. Remove all rough fat from the mutton.

  2. Place the mutton in a deep dish.

  3. Rub the mutton thoroughly with salt, celery salt, brown sugar, black pepper, English mustard, allspice, and sweet herbs.

  4. Pour vinegar over the mutton. Cover tightly.

  5. Refrigerate for 4-5 days, turning and basting daily.

Stew and serve

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a kettle.

  2. Place an inverted shallow pan over the boiling water. Lay the mutton on the pan.

  3. Cover the kettle tightly. Stew for 4 hours without letting the water touch the meat.

  4. Add 1 cup of hot water to the remaining pickle. Baste the meat with the hot water.

  5. Thicken the liquid with flour. Strain through a fine sieve to serve with the meat.

  6. Serve with 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
Long stewing and pickling soften the tough connective tissue into tender meat.
Vinegar
Acidity penetrates the meat during pickling, tenderising it and adding tang.
Brown sugar
Sweetness balances the sharpness of the vinegar and salt in the pickle.
Flour
Starch thickens the strained pan liquid into a sauce.
English mustard
Pungent heat adds flavour that penetrates the meat during the cure.

The step that matters

Keep the water from touching the meat while stewing. If the meat contacts the boiling water it becomes waterlogged and boils rather than gently steams, losing flavour and texture over the long 4-hour stew.

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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