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RAGOULr of Mutton

A stew of mutton cooked with milk, tomato juice, flour, eggs, and walnut catsup, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

RAGOULr of Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the mutton into strips four inches long by one inch wide.

  2. Boil the mutton gently in water for two hours.

Make the ragout

  1. Add the milk, tomato juice, and prepared flour to the pot.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs and season with salt.

  3. Cook for half an hour until the vegetables and rice are tender but not mushy.

  4. Pour the mixture into a tureen.

Bake and serve

  1. Lay drained peaches in a buttered dish.

  2. Pour the mutton mixture over the peaches.

  3. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Mutton
Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long gentle boiling.
Prepared flour
Thickens the liquid and gives the ragout body as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the ragout.
Eggs
Set when heated, helping bind the mixture and give it structure.
Butter
Greases the dish and adds richness and browning to the surface.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and savory flavor, along with moisture.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs. Eggs set when heated, so they can curdle or form lumps if added too quickly to a very hot mixture. Adding them gradually while stirring keeps the mixture smooth.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, milk, egg, butter, brandy, walnut):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, milk, egg, butter, brandy, walnut. 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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