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Chopped Meat Pie

A savory pie made with finely chopped mutton or veal, bacon, gravy, butter, lettuce, peas, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Chopped Meat Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove fat and skin from the meat and chop it finely.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the meat, minced bacon or salt pork, salt, pepper, gravy, and butter.

  2. Add the chopped lettuces, peas, and onion to the saucepan.

  3. Stir the mixture over gentle heat until hot.

  4. Cover the saucepan and let it stew gently by the fire for three hours.

Serve

  1. Serve within a wall of well-cooked rice, if desired.

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. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or veal
Provides the main body of the dish and, as it stews, becomes tender and rich.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, moist texture in the stewed mixture.
Bacon or salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the meat as it stews.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour so the mixture stews moist rather than dry.
Peas
Add sweetness and a fresh, tender texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stewing gently for three hours. Long, gentle heat breaks down the connective tissue in tough cuts like mutton, making them tender. Too much heat can toughen the meat and dry out the liquid, so keep the pan at a low simmer.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, pepper, butter, lettuce, onion. 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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