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Macaeoni Mutton

A stew of mutton and macaroni simmered with sauce, pepper, salt, vinegar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaeoni Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine mutton, macaroni, sauce, pepper, salt, vinegar, and water in a stewpan.

  2. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for 1 to 1.5 hours.

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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Mutton + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Sauce + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,844 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Main protein; slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, making it tender.
Macaroni
Starch base that absorbs the cooking liquid and gives the dish its body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps soften the meat.

The step that matters

Simmer gently under a lid. A hard boil toughens the meat and overcooks the macaroni. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in the mutton break down slowly while the pasta cooks through without turning mushy.

“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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