Skip to main content
Main

Hot Pot

A baked mutton and potato hot pot with onions, parsley, curry powder, kidney, stock, and tomato ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hot Pot

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the fat from the mutton chops and chop the bones short.

  2. Layer sliced potatoes at the bottom of an earthen dish.

Layer and season

  1. Sprinkle minced onion and chopped parsley over the potatoes.

  2. Add 4 mutton chops, season with salt, black pepper, and curry powder.

  3. Cover with thin slices of mutton kidney.

  4. Add another layer of potatoes and repeat the seasoning.

  5. Finish with a layer of potatoes on top.

  6. Pour in enough stock to fill the dish about three-quarters full.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the dish in a 350°F (175°C) oven in a tin of hot water, cover closely, and cook for 2 hours.

  2. After cooking, add more boiling stock and mix in tomato ketchup for flavor.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the main meat, whose fat and bone flavour season the stock as it cooks.
Potatoes
Form the layers that soak up stock and become tender, giving the dish body.
Mutton kidney
Adds rich, savoury meatiness to the layers as it cooks through.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the stock.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the finished stock.

The step that matters

Covering the dish in a water bath. The hot water tin cushions the dish so the heat rises gently, and the tight cover traps steam. Together they keep the meat moist and cook the potatoes through without drying or scorching the top layer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, parsley, pepper, tomato, ketchup):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, parsley, pepper, tomato, ketchup. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes