Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Mutton Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton
Trim the mutton of all fat and cut it into pieces the size of a teacup.
Cover the mutton with hot water and simmer slowly, covered, for 30 minutes.
Add the salt pork to the pot.
Add the onion to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stew and make the gravy
Stew until the meat is tender.
Remove the meat with a skimmer and place it on a serving dish.
Add the milk to the gravy in the kettle.
When the gravy is hot, stir in the flour mixed with a little cold milk.
Cook the gravy until well combined.
Taste the gravy and adjust seasoning if necessary.
If in season, add the grains from six ears of green corn an hour before the stew is done.
Serve
Pour the gravy over the mutton and serve.
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.
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Provides the meat that becomes tender through slow, covered simmering.
- Salt pork
- Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the cooking liquid and gravy.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stew and gravy.
- Milk
- Creates the creamy body of the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the hot gravy. Flour mixed with a little cold milk first disperses evenly, so it thickens smoothly without lumps. Stirring it into hot gravy and cooking it through removes raw starch taste and allows the gravy to thicken properly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, milk, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, milk, flour, 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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