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Mutton En Casserole

A casserole of browned mutton, carrots, and peas cooked slowly in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,994 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mutton En Casserole

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Brown the mutton

  1. Brown the mutton in a hot frying pan with a small amount of fat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the browned mutton into a casserole dish with the shredded carrots.

  2. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and season to taste.

  3. Cover the casserole and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for two hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the peas just before serving.

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 + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Mutton + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 rich as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they soften during the long, covered cooking.
Peas
Add fresh sweetness and bright color, and are added late so they keep their texture.

The step that matters

Brown the mutton well before casseroling. Searing in a hot pan with a little fat builds browned, savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or skipping the browning leaves the stew flat-tasting and greyish.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, peas):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, peas. 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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