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Mutton Stew

A stew of mutton brisket, onions, potatoes, milk, and spices, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim fat from the mutton and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Boil the mutton with the onions for about 30 minutes, then strain.

Cook and finish

  1. Cover the mutton with fresh boiling water and cook until tender.

  2. Add the boiled potatoes, flour, milk, butter, salt, and minced pepper to the pot.

  3. Stir well and cook until heated through.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  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 brisket
Provides the meat and rich flavour that the stew is built around.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light, smooth sauce.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the stew liquid.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, soaking up flavour and helping thicken the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Add the milk and flour together, then stir well. Flour can clump when stirred into hot liquid unless it is well dispersed first. Stirring thoroughly while the stew heats through helps the flour hydrate evenly, and milk can scorch or curdle if it boils hard, so keep the heat moderate.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, milk, potato, butter, 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.

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