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Mutton Hotch-potch

A stew of minced mutton, lettuce, onions, peas, and butter simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mutton Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lettuces and slice the onions.

Make the stew

  1. Brown the onions in butter.

  2. Add the minced mutton, broth, and lettuces to the onions.

  3. Stew for 25 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

Add the peas

  1. Boil the peas separately.

  2. Mix the peas with the mutton and stir for 1–2 minutes to heat.

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. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lettuces
Wilt down during stewing to add bulk and moisture to the dish.
Butter
Browns the onions and adds richness to the base of the stew.
Mutton
Provides the main meat, whose fat and protein give the dish its savoury body.
Peas
Add sweetness and a tender texture that contrasts with the soft stew.

The step that matters

Stewing for 25 minutes while stirring. Stirring keeps the lettuces and minced mutton from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan, which would give a burnt taste and uneven texture.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, 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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