Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Pilau of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gravy
Make a gravy with the cracked bones and skin of the mutton and 1 pint of water, stewing it down by half.
Skim the liquor from the parboiled meat.
Place the liquor over the fire with 1 cup of washed rice and cook until tender.
When there is 1 cup of gravy left, strain it.
Season the strained gravy with pepper, salt, and curry powder.
Mix in the chopped pickled onion.
Finish the sauce
Roll the butter in the browned flour.
Stir the browned butter and flour into the hot gravy.
Add the mutton to the gravy.
Heat the mixture until nearly boiling, then remove from heat.
Serve
Drain the rice and season it well.
Serve the mutton on a hot dish, surrounded by a fence of rice.
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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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Cold roast mutton
- Provides the main meat, which is served in the gravy made from its own bones and skin.
- Washed rice
- Cooks in the gravy to absorb its flavor and form a tender border around the meat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy body to the gravy.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the hot gravy so it clings to the meat and rice.
- Pickled onion
- Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich, meaty gravy.
- Curry powder
- Adds warm spice aroma to the gravy.
The step that matters
Stirring the browned butter and flour into the hot gravy. Flour must be dispersed evenly in hot liquid so its starch thickens smoothly. Rolling the butter in flour first helps, but stirring well prevents lumps and keeps the gravy from thickening unevenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice, pepper, butter, flour):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, pepper, butter, flour. 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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