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Ragout of Mutton

A hearty stew of mutton, sweetbreads, pork, onion, and peas simmered in gravy and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 623 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Ragout of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Fry the onion in plenty of dripping until golden.

  2. Add the mutton and fry for 5 minutes.

  3. Parboil the sweetbreads, then cool in cold water, wipe, slice, and fry in the fat.

Stew

  1. Layer the sliced pork in a saucepan, followed by the mutton, sweetbreads, onion, and green peas.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then cover with gravy.

  3. Cover with a tight lid and stew gently for 1 hour after boiling.

Thicken and finish

  1. Remove the meat and sweetbreads, thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  2. Pour the thickened gravy over 2 beaten eggs, stir for 1 minute over heat, and then pour over the meat.

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. Lamb + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together623 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mutton + lambtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the ragout and becomes tender during slow stewing.
Eggs
Thicken the gravy slightly and add richness when stirred over heat.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat rather than running off.
Streaked salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that carries into the stewing liquid.
Lamb sweetbreads
Contribute a soft, creamy texture and a delicate richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg into the hot gravy. If the gravy is too hot or stirred too little, the beaten egg can scramble into small curds instead of smoothly enriching the sauce. Stir steadily over gentle heat so the egg thickens evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, lamb, meat, egg, pork, peas, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, lamb, meat, egg, pork, peas, pepper. 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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