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Scalloped Mutton

A baked casserole of mutton, macaroni, tomato sauce, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the cooked macaroni, mutton, and tomato sauce, sprinkling each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Mix the cracker crumbs with the melted fat and cover the top with this mixture.

  3. Bake until the crumbs are brown.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + muttontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat that forms the main body of the dish.
Cooked macaroni
Adds starchy bulk that soaks up sauce and gives the casserole body.
Tomato sauce
Supplies moisture and acidity that keep the layers soft during baking.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Melted fat
Coats the crumbs so they brown evenly and stay crisp.

The step that matters

Cover the top evenly with the cracker crumb mixture. Crumbs coated with melted fat brown evenly and form a crisp crust. Thin or patchy coverage leaves bare spots that dry out or stay pale while the layers below can become soggy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mutton. 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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