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Mutton, Minced

A dish of minced mutton simmered with broth, anchovy butter, and served with boiled endive leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and endive work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and 11 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the mince

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add enough flour to absorb the butter and stir over low heat until light brown.

  3. Add the minced mutton and the broth made from the bone and ham.

  4. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, then mix well.

  5. Simmer gently for 30 minutes without boiling.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the anchovy butter.

Prepare the endive

  1. Prepare the endive by boiling the leaves in salted water, then cooling and chopping them.

  2. Heat the chopped endive in a clean stewpan with a little white sauce.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, then add the egg yolks.

Serve

  1. Serve the endive around the minced mutton.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Ham + endivetop 23% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together11 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mutton + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together164 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + hamtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together430 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,411 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the flavour and, with flour, forms a roux that thickens the mince.
Flour
Absorbs the butter and, once cooked, thickens the broth into a smooth sauce.
Cooked mutton
Provides the main meat and body of the dish.
Broth
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the minced meat.
Egg yolks
Enrich the endive sauce and help it set to a creamy texture.
Anchovy butter
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the mince.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and butter until light brown. Cooking the roux over low heat until light brown thickens the liquid and adds nutty flavour. Too much heat can scorch it, leaving a bitter taste and dark specks in the sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the endive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mutton, ham, pepper, nutmeg, anchovy):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  4. Endivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mutton, ham, pepper, nutmeg, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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