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Mutton, Hashed

A baked mutton hash with breadcrumbs, brown sauce, pickles, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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, Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold mutton into thin slices.

  2. Boil the bones and trimmings for stock to make the brown sauce.

Layer the dish

  1. Grease a pie dish and cover the bottom with a layer of breadcrumbs.

  2. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of brown sauce on top of the breadcrumbs.

  3. Arrange the slices of mutton slightly overlapping each other on top.

  4. Sprinkle with chopped pickles, salt, and pepper.

  5. Cover lightly with more breadcrumbs and brown sauce.

  6. Repeat the layering process until all ingredients are used, finishing with a thick layer of breadcrumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with greased paper and bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve in the dish it was cooked in.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cold mutton
Forms the main body of the hash, providing meat flavour and substance.
Breadcrumbs
Form absorbent layers that soak up sauce and hold the hash together as it bakes.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury flavour, keeping the layers from drying out during baking.
Pickles
Add sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Baking gently with the paper cover. Low, gentle heat under greased paper heats the meat through and keeps the breadcrumbs and sauce moist, so the hash does not dry out or toughen at the surface.

“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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