Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Haricot Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Divide the mutton into cutlets, trimming excess fat if necessary.
Heat the butter or fat in a stewpan and fry the meat quickly until browned.
Sprinkle the meat with flour to help it brown faster.
Stew
Add the boiling water, garlic, bouquet garni, and a little salt and pepper.
Cover with a lid and cook very slowly for 1 hour.
In the meantime, heat the remaining butter and fry the turnips until browned.
Drain the turnips and add them to the stewpan with the meat.
Continue to cook slowly until both the meat and turnips are tender.
Serve
Skim off excess fat and strain the gravy over the meat before serving.
Serve the meat in the center of a hot dish, arranging the turnips around it.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,352 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Slow cooking in liquid turns the tough neck meat tender and gives the stew its body.
- Turnips
- Frying until browned adds caramelised flavour, then slow stewing makes them soft and sweet.
- Butter or dripping
- Fat carries the heat for browning the meat and turnips and adds rich flavour.
- Flour
- Dusted on the meat, it promotes browning and thickens the gravy as it cooks.
- Garlic
- Adds a subtle aromatic savour to the broth during slow cooking.
The step that matters
Fry the meat quickly until browned. Browning creates Maillard flavour compounds that build the depth of the gravy. Pale, steamed meat gives a flat, grey-tasting stew, so the pieces should be dry and in a hot pan.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, butter, flour, parsley, thyme, garlic):
- Marjoramfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Capersfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, butter, flour, parsley, thyme, garlic. 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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