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Mutton, Hashed

A stew of sliced mutton simmered in a buttery onion and walnut sauce with consomme and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mutton, Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onions, parsley, and pickled walnut; fry for 2-3 minutes without burning.

  3. Stir in the flour until smooth, then add the consomme.

  4. Bring to a boil while stirring, then reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture, then add the catsup, lemon juice, and sea salt.

Stew the mutton

  1. Return the sliced mutton to the sauce and let it stew for 45 minutes, avoiding boiling.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Roast leg of mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavourful as it stews in the sauce.
Butter
Fat that softens the onions and helps form the base of the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the consomme into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Consomme
Liquid base that carries the savoury flavour of the hash.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, adding depth to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.

The step that matters

Stew the mutton without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and can make the mutton dry and stringy, so the sauce should only simmer gently while the meat stews.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, parsley, walnut, flour, mushroom, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, parsley, walnut, flour, mushroom, lemon. 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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