Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Braised Mutton Chops
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
Pound the chops on both sides with a heavy knife.
Fry the vegetables in butter until slightly brown.
Add a few tablespoons of boiling water and simmer for about 15 minutes.
In a covered saucepan or bake pan, lay the vegetables in the bottom.
Sear the chops in a hot frying pan until slightly browned on both sides.
Braise and bake
Place the chops on the bed of vegetables and add enough broth to cover them.
Cover the pan tightly and bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Make the gravy and serve
Arrange the chops in the center of a serving dish with the vegetables around them.
Boil down the gravy in the pan for a few moments.
Strain the gravy over the chops and serve.
If desired, thicken the sauce with a pinch of cornstarch blended with a few drops of cold water.
Boil for 3 minutes while stirring.
Strain.
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.
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 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
- Mutton chops
- Searing and then slow braising make the meat tender and flavourful as it cooks in liquid.
- Butter
- Frying the vegetables in butter adds richness and encourages gentle browning.
- Broth
- Provides the liquid that braises the chops and forms the base of the gravy.
- Onion or leek
- Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding savoury depth to the gravy.
- Carrot
- Sweetens slightly as it cooks and adds body to the braising liquid.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid and gravy.
The step that matters
Searing the chops before braising. Searing in a hot pan browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, building colour and roasted flavour that carry into the braising liquid and gravy. Pale, unseared chops give a flatter-tasting sauce.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, butter, celery, carrot):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Lettucefits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, butter, celery, carrot. 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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