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Haricot of Mutton

A stew of mutton pieces simmered with lima beans, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Haricot of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Fry the onions in the drippings or butter until soft.

  2. Add the mutton or lamb pieces and brown them.

  3. Cover the meat with water and cook until tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with a border of Lima beans seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + lima beanstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  5. Lima beans + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or lamb
Provides the main meat; browning and slow simmering make it tender and rich in flavor.
Onions
Softened in fat at the start, they add sweetness and aroma to the base of the dish.
Drippings or butter
Fat for frying the onions and browning the meat, carrying flavor through the dish.
Lima beans
Serve as a starchy side that adds body and mild sweetness alongside the meat.

The step that matters

Browning the meat. Searing the meat in hot fat before adding water develops deep, savory flavors through the Maillard reaction. Skipping or rushing this leaves the stew flat-tasting.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, mutton, pepper, parsley):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, mutton, pepper, parsley. 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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