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Haricot Mutton-

A stew of cold mutton, onions, vegetables, and gravy, seasoned with pepper, salt, port wine, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Haricot Mutton-

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Haricot Mutton-

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the cold mutton into moderate-sized chops and remove the fat.

Brown and stew

  1. Slice the onions and fry them with the chops in a little butter until nicely browned.

  2. Stir in the flour, add the gravy, and let it stew gently for nearly an hour.

Add vegetables and serve

  1. Meanwhile, boil the vegetables until nearly tender, slice them, and add to the mutton about 30 minutes before serving.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, add the ketchup and port wine, bring to a boil, and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  3. Port wine + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fries the onions and chops, adding richness and browning to their surfaces.
Onions
Browned in butter, they add sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.
Flour
Stirred into the fried mixture, it thickens the gravy as it stews.
Mutton
The cooked meat that forms the body of the stew.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the finished stew.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they soften.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and chops in butter. Browning creates deeper, roasted flavours through the Maillard reaction. If the pan is crowded or the heat is too low, the ingredients steam and turn pale, leaving the stew flat in flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, flour, pepper, port wine, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, pepper, port wine, mushroom, 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.

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