Name: Mutton, Breast Of, with Peas
Ingredients: 2 pounds breast of mutton, cut into small square pieces; 1 ounce butter; weak broth or water, enough to cover the meat; 1 onion or shallot, finely sliced; a bunch of sweet herbs; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 quart young peas

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton, Breast Of, with Peas

Ingredients

2 pounds breast of mutton, cut into small square pieces
1 ounce butter
weak broth or water, enough to cover the meat
1 onion or shallot, finely sliced
a bunch of sweet herbs
pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
1 quart young peas

Directions

Brown the mutton

In a stewpan, melt the butter and brown the mutton pieces nicely.
Cover the meat with weak broth or water and stew for 1 hour.

Make the gravy

Remove the meat and strain the gravy to remove fat.
Return the meat to a clean stewpan and add the onion, sweet herbs, pepper, and salt.
Strain the gravy over the meat and stew for another hour.

Add the peas

Add the young peas and cook for an additional 15 minutes 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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 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

Mutton: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing in liquid.
Butter: Fat for browning the meat, adding richness and savoury flavour to the surface.
Onion or shallot: Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the gravy as it stews.
Young peas: Add sweetness, fresh flavour and a tender green texture to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Browning the mutton pieces. Browning creates deeper flavour through the Maillard reaction. Meat that is crowded or not dried on the surface will steam rather than brown, leaving the stew flat in taste.

Swap the peas

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

Beansfits about as well
Lima beansfits about as well
Sesamefits about as well
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, meat, onion, 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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Green Peas229 recipes

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Mutton, Breast Of, with Peas