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Mutton

A simple mutton stew made with broth, onion, pepper, salt, flour, butter, and sliced mutton.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into slices.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, combine the gravy or broth, onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Heat over medium heat and thicken with flour and butter.

  3. Once it boils, add the mutton and keep stirring until thoroughly hot.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a serving dish 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.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Butter + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 as it simmers in the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the gravy or broth into a smooth, body-rich sauce when heated with butter.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux that thickens the liquid and adds richness.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Thickening the liquid with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and whisked into the hot liquid so it dissolves without lumps. Adding it raw or to cold liquid causes clumping, and stirring keeps the starch evenly dispersed as the sauce thickens.

Swap the onion

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

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

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