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Winter Hotch-potch

A hearty stew of mutton or lamb with vegetables simmered in water, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip 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 ↓

Winter Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cut the scrag of mutton into chops and bruise the bones with a hatchet.

  2. Place the bones in a pot with water, pepper, and salt; bring to a boil and skim until clear.

  3. Simmer for 2-3 hours on low heat.

  4. Remove the chops for serving.

Add the vegetables

  1. Add fresh chops, carrots, and scallions to the pot.

  2. Add turnips and peas, starting with the largest peas first.

  3. Cook until vegetables are well cooked but not dissolved.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Turnip + peastop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Scrag of mutton or neck of lamb
Provides meat and collagen-rich bones that give the broth body and savory flavor.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color, and hold their shape through long simmering.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly sweet earthiness and substance to the stew.
Peas
Add bright sweetness and a tender texture at the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth until clear. Skimming foam that rises when the liquid first boils removes impurities and coagulated proteins, so the broth stays clean-tasting and clear rather than cloudy and greasy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, carrot, turnip. 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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