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Mutton Pie

A baked pie with leftover mutton, cucumber, boiled eggs, butter, flour, and oyster liquor or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and oyster work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Mutton Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. Layer the mutton strips in a baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped cucumber and boiled eggs.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add bits of butter rolled in flour.

  5. Repeat layering until all meat is used.

  6. Pour in the oyster liquor or cold water.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover with pie crust, ornament the edges, and make a slit in the middle.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.

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. Cucumber + oystertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover mutton
Forms the meat filling that makes up the body of the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crust brown as it melts.
Boiled eggs
Add body and a soft, rich texture to the filling.
Pickled cucumber
Adds acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and butter.
Oyster liquor or cold water
Provides moisture that turns to steam and keeps the filling juicy while baking.

The step that matters

Pour in the oyster liquor or cold water. The liquid must be added before covering, so it can steam and moisten the meat as it bakes. Too little leaves the filling dry, while the slit in the crust lets steam escape.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, pepper, butter, flour, oyster):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, pepper, butter, flour, oyster. 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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