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Boiled Shoulder of Mutton

A boiled shoulder of mutton seasoned with salt and simmered with carrot, onion, celery, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boiled Shoulder of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Cure and prepare

  1. Salt the shoulder of mutton and turn it in the brine every morning for six days.

  2. After six days, place the mutton in a pot with cold water.

  3. Add the carrot, onion, celery, and a bouquet of parsley.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil gently for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

  2. Once done, serve the mutton.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shoulder
Main cut; long salting and slow cooking make the meat firm, seasoned and tender.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and draws moisture out during the curing, firming its texture.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Onion
Contributes savoury depth and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. A hard, rolling boil toughens the meat's proteins and can leave it dry and stringy. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue slowly break down, so the mutton becomes tender and juicy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, celery, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, celery, parsley. 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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