Name: Mutton Pasty
Ingredients: shoulder of mutton; pepper; coarse sea salt; gravy (made with mutton shanks, a little beef, two fried onions, a few peppercorns, and a small bit of mace); puff pastry (for cold serving); mashed potatoes or pie crust (for hot serving)

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

shoulder of mutton
pepper
coarse sea salt
gravy (made with mutton shanks, a little beef, two fried onions, a few peppercorns, and a small bit of mace)
puff pastry (for cold serving)
mashed potatoes or pie crust (for hot serving)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

Using a sharp knife, cut the lean meat from an uncooked shoulder of mutton into thin slices.
Place the slices in a pie dish and sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Nearly fill the dish with gravy made from mutton shanks, a little beef, two fried onions, a few peppercorns, and a small bit of mace.

Top and bake

If serving cold, cover with puff pastry and bake at 400°F (200°C).
If serving hot, cover with mashed potatoes or a pie crust and bake.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Shoulder of mutton: Provides the main meat, whose lean slices cook tender in the dish.
Gravy: Adds moisture and savoury flavour so the meat stays juicy while baking.
Puff pastry: Forms a flaky, golden crust when served cold.
Mashed potatoes or pie crust: Forms a topping that seals in moisture for hot serving.

Swap the mace

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

Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, beef, onion, potato. 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.