Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Haricot Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat and vegetables
Preheat a dripping tin until hot.
Cut the mutton into chops and fry them in the hot dripping.
Slice the onion and fry it until golden.
Make the gravy and simmer
Mix the flour with a little cold water to form a smooth paste, then add it to the pan until it boils.
Chop the turnip and carrot, then add them to the gravy.
Let everything simmer for two hours.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Neck mutton
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long simmer.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce when mixed into a paste and boiled.
- Onion
- Frying until golden adds sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.
- Turnip
- Adds bulk and a mild, slightly sweet flavour as it softens in the stew.
- Carrot
- Adds natural sweetness and colour, and softens into the gravy during simmering.
The step that matters
Mixing the flour paste into the pan. Flour must be blended smooth with cold water first, because adding it dry or lumpy causes clumps. Bringing the mixture to a boil lets the starch swell and thicken the gravy evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, carrot, flour, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, carrot, 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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