Name: The Hermits Mutton Stew
Ingredients: 8 pounds necks and scrags of mutton, cut up; ½ pound celery, chopped small; ½ pound onions, chopped small; 2 quarts water; ½ pound raw chopped onions (for second cooking); 4 pounds potatoes, boiled and cut up

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The Hermits Mutton Stew

Ingredients

8 pounds necks and scrags of mutton, cut up
½ pound celery, chopped small
½ pound onions, chopped small
2 quarts water
½ pound raw chopped onions (for second cooking)
4 pounds potatoes, boiled and cut up

Directions

In a double boiler, stew the mutton, celery, onions, and water for 3 hours.
The next day, remove all excess fat and bones from the meat.
Return the meat to the double boiler with enough clear broth to moisten it.
Add the additional chopped onions and boiled potatoes.
Stew everything together for 1 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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,531 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton necks and scrags: Provides the main meat and rich flavor that the broth is built on.
Potatoes: Add body and starch that thicken the stew slightly as they cook.
Onions: Add savory sweetness as they soften and release flavor into the broth.