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Mutton-Chops Delicately Stewed

A stew of mutton chops simmered with onions, carrots, and turnips, finished with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 145 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton-Chops Delicately Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Place the mutton chops in a stew pan and cover with cold water.

  2. Add the onion.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim off any scum, then cover and reduce heat to very low.

  4. Simmer gently for about 45 minutes until the chops are tender.

Cook the vegetables

  1. Boil the carrots for 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the turnips for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain and set aside.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a separate pan.

  2. Stir in enough flour to thicken the gravy.

  3. Gradually add the cooking liquid to the flour mixture, stirring until it boils.

  4. Strain the gravy into a clean pan.

  5. Add the carrots and turnips.

  6. Simmer gently.

Serve

  1. Arrange the mutton chops on a serving dish.

  2. Place the vegetables in the center.

  3. Pour the thickened gravy over the top.

  4. Optionally, garnish with capers or minced gherkins.

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. Turnip + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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 chops
Supply the main meat, which turns tender through long, gentle simmering.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they soften during cooking.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly peppery flavour and soft texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the roux that begins the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy as it cooks with the butter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cooking liquid to the flour mixture. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour smooth and prevents lumps, so the gravy thickens evenly as it comes to a boil.

Swap the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, carrot, turnip, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, carrot, turnip, butter, 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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