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Haricot of Mutton

A stew of mutton chops with onions, carrots, turnips, celery, butter, flour, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Haricot of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the base

  1. In a stewpan, add the mutton chops and butter.

  2. Add the sliced onions and fry until nicely browned.

  3. Make a roux with a little stock and flour.

  4. Add the roux to the meat.

Add the vegetables and serve

  1. Cook the vegetables separately.

  2. Add them to the stewpan about 30 minutes before the meat is done.

  3. Add the carrot, turnip, and celery strips to the stewpan when the meat is half done.

  4. Serve very hot.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it simmers slowly.
Onions
Browning in butter adds sweetness and savory depth to the stew.
Flour
Forms a roux with the stock that thickens the stew's liquid into a smooth gravy.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a firm texture that holds up during simmering.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery flavour and a tender bite after cooking.

The step that matters

Fry the onions until nicely browned. Browning develops deep, savory flavours through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation. Pale onions leave the stew tasting flat and washed out.

Swap the onion

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

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

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