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Mutton Stew

A stew of mutton pieces with onion, pepper, salt, milk, and flour dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the stew

  1. In a pot, stew mutton with pepper, salt, and onion until tender.

Make and cook the dumplings

  1. In a bowl, mix milk, baking powder, salt, and flour to make dough.

  2. Cut dough into small pieces and drop into the pot with mutton for 3 seconds.

  3. Lift out dumplings and place in a dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the stew with additional flour and pour over mutton and dumplings.

  2. Serve hot.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Slow stewing breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and the broth rich.
Flour
Starch thickens the stew and gives the dumplings their body.
Baking powder
Releases gas when moistened and heated, lightening the dumplings as they rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the dough, making the dumplings softer.
Onion
Softens as it cooks, adding sweetness and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Dropping the dumplings into the pot. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as the dough is wet and heated, so the dough should go into the pot promptly after mixing. Lifting the dumplings out after a brief dip keeps them light instead of letting them become dense and gummy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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