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Mutton Pie, Good

A savory pie with mutton chops, kidneys, herbs, and optional ketchup and port wine, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Pie, Good

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix parsley, savory herbs, shallot (or onion), salt, and pepper.

Assemble the pie

  1. Place the mutton chops in a pie dish and cover with the seasoning mixture.

  2. Distribute the kidney pieces evenly over the meat.

  3. Pour in the veal broth or water.

  4. If using, add ketchup and port wine, reducing the water accordingly.

  5. Cover with puff pastry or suet crust.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and rich during slow baking.
Kidneys
Add a deep, savory flavor and a firm, meaty texture to the filling.
Veal broth or water
Supplies moisture that cooks the meat gently and forms the savory juices.
Puff pastry or suet crust
Forms a sealed top that traps steam and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the liquid and reducing the water when using ketchup and port. Ketchup and port add sweetness, acidity and extra liquid. Cutting back the broth keeps the filling from becoming watery and diluting the flavor.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, pepper, mutton, veal, ketchup, port wine):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, pepper, mutton, veal, ketchup, port wine. 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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