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Mutton, Ragout of

A stew of mutton, turnips, carrots, onions, and parsley simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton, Ragout of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ragout

  1. In a broad-bottomed stewpan, brown the onions in butter or dripping, adding a little flour to prevent burning.

  2. Brown the mutton pieces on each side in the same pan.

  3. Pour in the broth or water and add the sliced turnips, carrots, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Stew gently until the vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Arrange the meat in a circle on a plate, place the vegetables in the center, and pour the sauce over everything.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 is already cooked and gains browned flavour from searing.
Onions
Browned in fat to build a sweet, savoury base for the sauce.
Butter or dripping
Carries the browning of the onions and mutton and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid slightly and helps prevent the onions from burning.
Turnips
Soften during stewing and add body and a mild sweetness to the sauce.
Carrots
Soften during stewing and add sweetness and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and mutton. Browning caramelises sugars and proteins through the Maillard reaction, creating the savoury depth of the sauce. Adding flour helps stop the onions scorching in the fat before the broth goes in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, butter, flour, mutton, parsley, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, butter, flour, mutton, parsley, 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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