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Mutton Pies

A savory pie filled with mutton, potatoes, onions, and parsley, encased in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Parboil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Cut the mutton into small pieces.

  3. Chop the onion and parsley finely.

Make and fill the pastry

  1. Make the pastry by rubbing the dripping into the flour mixed with salt and baking powder until smooth.

  2. Grease eight tins and line them with the pastry.

  3. Fill the tins with the mutton, potatoes, onion, and parsley mixture.

Bake

  1. Cover with more pastry and bake at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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 filling and rich savoury flavour.
Potatoes
Add bulk and moisture to the filling, keeping it soft after baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry that holds the filling.
Dripping
Adds fat that makes the pastry short and tender.
Baking powder
Lifts the pastry slightly so it bakes light rather than dense.

The step that matters

Rubbing the dripping into the flour. Fat coats the flour particles and limits gluten formation, so rubbing it in thoroughly before adding liquid gives a short, tender pastry rather than a tough one.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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