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Scalloped Mutton

A baked casserole of sliced mutton, macaroni, tomato sauce, and buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

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.

Prepare

  1. Remove fat and skin from the cold mutton and cut it into thin slices.

Layer and bake

  1. In a buttered dish, layer the mutton and then a layer of cooked macaroni.

  2. Season each layer with salt and pepper, and moisten with tomato sauce.

  3. Repeat the layering until the dish is full.

  4. Top with buttered crumbs and bake at 350°F (175°C) until heated 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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meaty flavour.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity so the layers stay juicy as they bake.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture between the meat layers.
Buttered crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Top with buttered crumbs and bake until heated through. The mutton is already cooked, so the bake mainly needs to heat it evenly and brown the topping. Taking it out too early leaves the centre cool, while overbaking dries the meat and macaroni.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, 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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