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Mutton and Tomato

A stew of mutton pieces simmered in tomato with butter, Worcestershire sauce, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato 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 ↓

Mutton and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into small pieces.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

Stew

  1. Place in an earthen dish and cover with strained tomato.

  2. Add butter, Worcestershire sauce, and onion.

  3. Cook for 5 hours in an Aladdin Pail.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender and rich during long, slow cooking.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the cooking liquid into a body-rich sauce.
Strained tomato
Supplies moisture, acidity, and a bright tomato flavor that forms the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the finished sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that complements the meat and tomato.
Onion
Adds aroma and gentle sweetness as it softens in the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook for 5 hours in an Aladdin Pail. Neck meat is full of connective tissue that breaks down slowly at low, steady heat. A hard boil toughens the meat and can reduce the liquid too quickly, so keep the stew at a gentle simmer for the full time.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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