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Boiled Mutton

A boiled mutton dish with carrots, turnip, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boiled Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Wipe the mutton with a cold, wet cloth and scrape off any discolored skin.

  2. Ensure the meat is red, elastic, and has a fresh smell.

Boil

  1. Boil water with salt in a large pan.

  2. Plunge the mutton into the boiling water, outside down, and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 20 minutes for joints over 3 pounds.

Add the vegetables

  1. Prepare the carrot and turnip; cut the carrot smaller than the turnip.

  2. Prepare and add the onion.

  3. Add the vegetables to the pot if the mutton is small; if large, add them later.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Long, gentle simmering turns the tough connective tissue tender and produces a rich broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aroma to the broth as it cooks.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and body to the broth as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Plunge the mutton into boiling water. Starting the meat in already boiling water quickly seals its surface and limits protein and juice loss into the pot, helping it stay tender. Boiling it briefly before reducing to a simmer keeps the broth clearer than a slow start from cold water.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip. 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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