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Mutton Pie

A savory pie filled with cold mutton, gravy, currant jelly, and flour, topped with pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mutton Pie

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Layer the cold mutton slices in a deep dish.

  3. Place an empty cup upside down in the center of the dish to catch the gravy.

  4. Season the meat with salt, pepper, and sprinkle with flour.

Add the gravy and bake

  1. Add the cold gravy and currant jelly.

  2. If there is not enough gravy, add a little water and butter.

  3. Cover the dish with a prepared pie crust, making three slits in the center.

  4. Bake for 45 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  4. Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Slices of cold mutton
Forms the savoury filling that makes up the body of the pie.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and juices so they cling to the meat rather than running off.
Cold gravy
Supplies moisture and meaty flavour that keeps the filling from drying out while baking.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich meat and gravy.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and moisture as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with the pie crust and slitting it. The three slits let steam escape during baking. Without them, trapped steam can build pressure, soften the crust underneath, and make the filling watery.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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