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Loin of Mutton Stewed

A stew made from a boned mutton loin simmered with water, butter, herbs, onions, and finished with red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Loin of Mutton Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the loin of mutton and bone it.

  2. Roll the boned mutton and place it in a stew pan.

Stew and serve

  1. Add 1½ cups of water, butter, sweet herbs, and onions.

  2. Stew for nearly 4 hours.

  3. Strain the gravy and add 2 tablespoons of red wine.

  4. Serve very hot with jelly sauce.

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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  4. Onion + red winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Long, slow stewing breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and succulent.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savoury flavour to the gravy.
Onions
Soften during stewing, adding sweetness and aroma to the gravy.
Sweet herbs
Contribute aromatic flavour that infuses the stewing liquid.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the strained gravy.

The step that matters

Stew for nearly 4 hours. Long, gentle cooking breaks down the connective tissue in mutton, so the meat becomes tender and the gravy gains body. A hard boil can toughen the meat and reduce the liquid too quickly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, red wine):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, red wine. 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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