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
Braise the mutton
Line the bottom of a thick iron kettle or stew-pan with a few slices of bacon.
Place the sliced carrots, onions, and savory herbs over the bacon.
Put the leg of mutton on top, then cover with more bacon slices.
Pour ½ pint of water over the meat, cover tightly, and stew gently for 4 hours.
Baste the leg occasionally with its own juices and season with salt and pepper when it begins to tender.
Make the gravy and serve
Once cooked, strain the gravy and thicken it with 1 tablespoon of flour until brown.
Pour some gravy over the meat and serve the rest in a tureen.
Garnish the dish with fried potatoes shaped like olives.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat and enriches the juices.
- Onions
- Break down during stewing to add sweetness and depth to the gravy.
- Carrots
- Soften during stewing and add natural sweetness to the braising liquid.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the meat and browns slightly.
The step that matters
Stewing gently with the lid tightly closed. Slow, low-heat simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton into gelatin, making it tender. Boiling hard would toughen the muscle fibers and dry the meat, so the heat must stay gentle for the full four hours.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, pepper, flour, potato, olive, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- 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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