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Boiled Shoulder of Mutton with Onions

A boiled mutton shoulder served with a sauce of onions, butter, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Charles Elme Francatelli · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Shoulder of Mutton with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the mutton

  1. Put the shoulder of mutton in a two-gallon pot with a handful of salt and plenty of water.

  2. Allow it to boil gently for about two hours.

  3. When done, place the shoulder on its dish.

Make the onion sauce

  1. Chop six or eight large onions.

  2. Boil the onions with a pint of water for twenty minutes, until the water is reduced to half a pint.

  3. Add two ounces of butter, a pint of milk, four ounces of flour, pepper, and salt to the onions.

  4. Stir the sauce while boiling for ten minutes.

  5. Smother the shoulder with the following sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

756Calories
22 gProtein
21 gFat
118 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Charles Elme Francatelli. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth, coating sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Onions
Give the sauce its sweetness and savory aroma as they soften in water.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce while boiling for ten minutes. Flour thickens sauces only when stirred during boiling; without constant stirring it can clump on the bottom of the pot and scorch, leaving lumps and a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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