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Mutton Stew and Dumplings

A hearty stew of mutton, root vegetables, and dumplings served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Mutton Stew and Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the mutton

  1. Cut the mutton into pieces.

  2. Brown the mutton in a pot.

Simmer the stew

  1. Add chopped onions, carrots, and rutabagas to the pot.

  2. Pour enough water to cover the ingredients.

  3. Simmer until tender.

  4. Peel and chop the potatoes.

  5. Add the potatoes to the stew during the last 20 minutes of cooking.

Make and add the dumplings

  1. Mix flour, lard, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Add water to form a dough.

  3. Shape the dough into balls.

  4. Drop the dumplings into the stew during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with bread and butter.

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

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + rutabagatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Potato + rutabagatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful through long simmering.
Flour
Forms the dumpling dough and gives structure so the dumplings hold their shape in the stew.
Lard
Adds fat to the dumpling dough, making it tender and short rather than tough.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the stew slightly and gives body to the broth.

The step that matters

Dropping the dumplings into the stew. Dumplings need a gentle simmer and a lid-covered pot to cook through and steam. Added too early they can break apart or turn soggy; timing them for the last 10 minutes keeps them intact.

Swap the rutabaga

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, carrot, onion, bread, butter, milk):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Rutabagathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, carrot, onion, bread, butter, milk. 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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