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Winter Hotch-potch

A lamb or mutton stew simmered with vegetables and seasonings.

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

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the mutton or lamb 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.

Add the vegetables

  1. Remove the chops for serving.

  2. Add fresh chops, carrots, and scallions.

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

  4. 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

Mutton or lamb
Provides rich, savory meat flavor and gelatin-rich body to the broth.
Lamb bones
Release collagen and marrow flavor into the water during long simmering, thickening the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body as they soften during the long cook.
Turnips
Add a mildly peppery, slightly sweet note and firm texture to the stew.
Peas
Add sweetness and a tender texture that contrasts with the firmer roots.

The step that matters

Cook the vegetables until well cooked but not dissolved. Vegetables keep cooking in the hot broth after removal, so they can turn mushy quickly. Adding them in order of cooking time, with the largest peas first, helps them finish at the same point.

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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