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Black Stew

A stew of sliced mutton simmered in gravy, water, onions, allspice, pickled cucumber, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a skillet or oven, combine the mutton slices and cold gravy.

  2. Add enough water to cover the meat and heat for about 1.5 hours.

  3. Fifteen minutes before serving, add the chopped onions, allspice, salt, and black pepper.

  4. Five minutes before serving, stir in the sliced pickled cucumber.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat, place it on a dish, and stir the currant jelly into the gravy.

  2. Pour the gravy over the meat and serve.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 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
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle heating in the gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that balances the savory gravy.
Pickled cucumber
Adds acidity and sharp brightness that cut through the rich, fatty meat.
Silver onions
Contribute savory sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Adding the pickled cucumber five minutes before serving. Acid from the pickle softens and dulls quickly with prolonged heat, so adding it late keeps its sharp flavour bright and distinct in the finished gravy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, meat, onion, allspice, pepper, cucumber. 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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