Name: Ragout of Cold Boiled Mutton
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled mutton, cut in 1-inch squares; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 can peas; 1 onion, sliced; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 cup stock or water used for boiling mutton; 1 head of lettuce; Farina balls

Why it works: Peas and lettuce 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 ↓

Ragout of Cold Boiled Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ragout

Combine all ingredients except lettuce and farina balls in a saucepan.
Cover and simmer slowly for 1 hour, stirring occasionally without breaking the meat or peas.
Taste and adjust seasoning before serving.

Serve

Serve on a hot dish, garnished with crisp lettuce leaves and farina balls.

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.

Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled mutton: Provides the main protein; slow simmering tenderises it further and keeps it moist.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Onion: Releases sweetness and aroma as it softens during the long, gentle simmer.
Stock or mutton cooking water: Supplies liquid that carries flavour and keeps the ragout moist as it simmers.
Peas: Add sweetness and soft texture to the ragout.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly without breaking the meat or peas. Gentle heat lets the cooked mutton soften and flavours blend without boiling hard. Vigorous boiling or rough stirring toughens the surface of the meat and breaks down the peas into mush, leaving a less pleasant texture.

Swap the lettuce

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

Potatofits better
Leekfits better
Asparagusfits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, peas, onion, 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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Green Peas229 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

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Ragout of Cold Boiled Mutton