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Hodge-podge

A hearty stew of mutton with carrots, turnips, onions, cabbage, and optional peas, simmered in salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 526 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Hodge-podge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the mutton into small pieces and place in a stewpan with cold water and salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour, skimming regularly.

  3. Add the carrot, turnips, onions, and cabbage lettuces, all washed and diced, and simmer until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Skim off any fat and serve the meat in the soup or separately.

  5. If using, add the green peas and boil in the soup for added flavor.

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. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  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 rich meat flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and color to the broth.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery flavor and tender body to the stew.
Cabbage lettuces
Soften during simmering and add vegetable flavor and bulk to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Fat and foam rise to the surface of the stew while the mutton cooks. Skimming them regularly keeps the broth clear and stops it tasting greasy.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, cabbage, lettuce):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, cabbage, lettuce. 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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