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Mutton with Carrots

A simple lamb shoulder stew with carrots, onion, and salt, simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton with Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the lamb shoulder thoroughly and remove as much fat as possible.

  2. Scrape and slice the carrots and onion.

Cook

  1. Place the lamb and vegetables in a saucepan and cover with water.

  2. Boil moderately for 1.5 hours.

  3. When half done, add the salt.

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. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + carrottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together724 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb shoulder
Provides the main meat, whose fat is trimmed away before cooking.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the cooking liquid as they soften.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

When half done, add the salt. Salt added partway through boiling seasons the meat and liquid while the lamb is still firm enough to absorb it, so timing matters for an even seasoning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, carrot):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, carrot. 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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