Mutton Curry

Which cut of mutton makes the best curry?

Shoulder, with some leg for variety, and bone-in throughout. Shoulder is a working muscle laced with collagen, and collagen is precisely what you want here: given long moist heat it converts to gelatine, which is what gives a good mutton curry its body and its soft texture. Lean boneless leg cooked the same way stays dry and fibrous. Ask for a mix of pieces with a few marrow bones in among them, and do not trim away every scrap of fat, since some of it renders into the gravy.

Why do the onions need so long?

Because browning them is the single largest flavour decision in the dish. Fifteen minutes of patient cooking turns raw sulphurous onion into something deeply sweet and savoury, and that sweetness is the base note every other spice sits on. Rushing to a pale gold in five minutes gives a curry that tastes thin and raw no matter how much garam masala you add later. Stir often near the end, because the sugars that do the work are also the ones that burn.

Pressure cooker or slow pot?

Both reach the same destination by different roads. A pressure cooker holds the contents above the normal boiling point and gets there in about 25 minutes, which is what most Indian homes use during the week. An open pot at a bare simmer takes an hour and a half and gives slightly better control, because you can taste as you go and stop at the exact point of tenderness. What neither tolerates is a hard rolling boil, which tightens the muscle fibres faster than the collagen can soften.

How do you know when mutton is tender?

Push a spoon against a thick piece near the bone. It should give way and come clear without tugging. Tenderness in goat meat is not the same question as doneness: the meat is safely cooked long before it is pleasant to eat, and the last thirty minutes are what separate chewy from good. If it is still resisting, it needs more time rather than more heat. Add half a cup of hot water and carry on; there is no stage at which a tough piece suddenly becomes a lost cause.

Why is my mutton curry tough?

Usually the flame was too high, or it was salted late, or the meat went in still wet from the tap. High heat contracts muscle protein and squeezes the moisture out before the connective tissue has had a chance to break down. It is also worth handling the raw meat on its own board and washing hands and knife before touching anything else, since raw meat juices are a real source of cross-contamination in a busy kitchen. Any marinade the raw meat has sat in goes into the pot early and cooks through with it, never onto the finished curry.

Is mutton curry good for iron?

Goat meat is one of the better haem iron sources available, and haem iron is absorbed several times more efficiently than the iron in dal or spinach. That makes it genuinely useful for people at risk of deficiency, which our list of iron-rich Indian foods sets in a wider context. It is not a treatment for anaemia, which needs a diagnosis and often supplementation, and interpreting that correctly is part of the clinical nutrition course. Alongside it, something rich in vitamin C on the plate helps absorption from the non-meat items.

Does it taste better the next day?

It does, noticeably. Gelatine and fat redistribute through the gravy overnight and the spices lose their separate edges. Cool it quickly, refrigerate within two hours and use it within three days, reheating until it bubbles right through. A gentler spiced version of the same braise is rogan josh, which is worth cooking once to see how differently the meat reads without browned onion underneath it.