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Mutton Pie

A pie made with mutton, sliced potatoes, herbs, and a suet crust, baked with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut nice, neat slices of lean mutton.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a pie dish, layer the mutton and thinly-sliced potatoes alternately, starting with meat and finishing with potatoes.

  2. Season with parsley, savoury herbs, onion or shallot, mace, white pepper, and coarse sea salt as desired.

  3. Pour 1 cup of good gravy over the layers before adding the crust.

  4. Use suet to make the crust.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and the body of the filling.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, soaking up gravy and softening as the pie bakes.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth so the layers do not dry out in the oven.
Suet
Adds fat to the crust, giving it a rich, tender texture.

The step that matters

Pouring the gravy over the layers before the crust. The gravy must reach the layers before the crust seals the dish. Enough liquid keeps the meat and potatoes moist while they cook through under the crust.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, parsley, onion, mace):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, parsley, onion, mace. 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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