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Hashed Mutton with Fried Eggs

A stew of mutton and vegetables cooked with sago, served with fried eggs and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Hashed Mutton with Fried Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into chops, removing fat and skin.

  2. In a large earthenware jar, place 2 tablespoons of sago at the bottom.

Layer and season

  1. Layer the chops on top of the sago, followed by sliced carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and any seasonal green vegetables.

  2. Repeat the layers, starting with another tablespoon of sago, then meat, and vegetables until all ingredients are used.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Stew and serve

  1. Pour in 1 pint of spring water, cover the jar, and stew gently in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.

  2. Fry slices of bread and eggs to serve as a garnish.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 during long, gentle stewing.
Sago
Starch that thickens the cooking liquid and helps bind the hash as it stews.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they soften during slow cooking.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and sweetness as they soften and release their flavour into the stew.
Eggs
Fried as a garnish, adding richness and a soft, runny yolk contrast to the stew.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, lettuce, pepper):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, lettuce, 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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