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To Mince Mutton

A dish of finely minced cooked-style mutton heated in gravy and served with sippets or mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Mince Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the dressed mutton very fine, removing all fat, skin, and sinew.

  2. Season the minced mutton with salt, pepper, and Cayenne.

Cook

  1. Place the seasoned mutton in a stewpan with enough gravy to half cover it.

  2. Add Worcestershire sauce or ketchup and shake for five minutes until hot.

Serve

  1. Serve in a dish surrounded by fried sippets or mashed potatoes.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Dressed mutton
Provides the main body of the dish, and its fat and sinew are removed so the meat stays tender.
Good gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour, keeping the minced meat from drying out while it heats.
Worcestershire sauce or ketchup
Adds acidity and savoury depth that brighten the meat.

The step that matters

Heating the mutton in gravy. Minced meat dries out and toughens if it boils hard or heats too long. Keeping it at a gentle heat, just until hot, preserves moisture and tenderness.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, sauce. 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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