Skip to main content
Main

Small Mutton Pies

Small mutton pies filled with minced mutton, stock, shallot, mushrooms, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Small Mutton Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the mutton and fat into small pieces, removing skin and sinews, then mince finely with a knife.

  3. In a stewpan, combine the minced mutton, stock, shallot, mushrooms, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat and let cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the pastry with the cooled mutton mixture.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

  3. Once baked, cut the tops off the pies and fill them with any remaining meat mixture.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat filling, with its fat adding richness and moisture to the pies.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Shallot
Adds mild aromatic sweetness to the filling.
Pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooling the cooked mutton mixture before filling. Cooking stirs the meat and mushrooms over low heat, and the filling should cool before going into raw pastry. Adding it hot can soften the pastry and melt the fat before the crust sets, leading to a soggy base.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, shallot, mushroom, 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes