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Tomatoes with Mutton Collops, Vegetables

A baked dish of mutton collops with tomatoes and mixed vegetables, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomatoes with Mutton Collops, Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Brown the mutton

  1. Melt butter over medium heat in a skillet.

  2. Add mutton collops and cook until browned on all sides.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake

  1. Layer tomatoes and mixed vegetables in a baking dish.

  2. Place browned mutton on top.

  3. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes until tomatoes are soft and mutton is cooked 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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 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
Browning in butter adds savoury flavour, and slow baking covered keeps the meat tender and cooked through.
Tomatoes
Break down during baking to form a moist, acidic sauce that flavours the meat and vegetables.
Mixed vegetables
Add sweetness and moisture while softening in the juices released during baking.
Butter
Carries heat in the skillet and promotes browning of the mutton surface.

The step that matters

Browning the mutton collops. Searing the meat over medium heat until browned on all sides creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale, steamed meat will taste flat after baking, so the surfaces need real colour before they go into the dish.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mutton, carrot, beans, pepper, butter):

  1. Lima beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Lentilsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mutton, carrot, beans, pepper, butter. 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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