Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mutton Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meat
Remove all fat from the mutton and cut it into neat cutlets.
Skin the kidneys, cut them into pieces, and add them to the cutlets.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, cayenne, herbs, and eschalots over the meat.
Assemble and bake
Place the cutlets and kidneys in a pie dish and add cold water to make gravy.
Cover the dish and make a hole in the center.
Glaze the pie.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 2 hours.
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.
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Provides the main meat, whose juices and fat enrich the gravy during baking.
- Mutton kidneys
- Add a rich, savoury depth of flavour to the meat and gravy.
- Eschalots
- Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that flavours the meat as it cooks.
- Cold water
- Forms the thin gravy that keeps the meat moist as it bakes under the crust.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water. Cold water goes into the dish before baking, so it can gently draw flavour from the meat and form gravy while the pie cooks. Too little liquid risks dry meat under the crust.
“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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