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Steaks of Mutton, or Lamb, and Cucumbers

A stew of mutton or lamb chops with cucumbers, onions, pepper, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Steaks of Mutton, or Lamb, and Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Quarter the cucumbers and place them in a deep dish.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and pour vinegar over them.

Brown the meat

  1. Fry the mutton or lamb chops until golden brown.

  2. Transfer the chops to a stew pan.

Stew

  1. Drain the cucumbers and place them over the steaks.

  2. Add sliced onions, pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour hot water or weak broth over the mixture.

  4. Stew and skim well.

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. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or lamb chops
Provide the meat that is browned first and then becomes tender in the stew.
Cucumbers
Add a tart, watery vegetable element that softens and flavours the stew as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the cucumbers and the stew.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the stewing liquid.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, mutton, 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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