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Haricot Mutton

A mutton stew with onions, carrot, turnip, and optional potatoes simmered in a gravy made from stock and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Haricot Mutton

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 ↓

Haricot Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Trim the mutton and beat each cutlet to about 1 inch thick, leaving about an inch of bone.

  2. Brown the chopped vegetables and cutlets in the dripping.

  3. Remove the cutlets and vegetables, then pour off excess grease.

  4. Pour in the stock and add the flour mixed with cold water, stirring until smooth.

  5. Strain the mixture into a clean pan and bring to a boil.

Stew

  1. Add the cutlets and stew for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the vegetables and simmer until they are cooked.

  3. Dish the vegetables in the center, arrange the chops around them, and pour over the gravy.

Potato and onion variation

  1. If using small potatoes, leave them whole; otherwise, cut them into thick slices.

  2. Slice the onions; if the flavor is too strong, pour boiling water over them, add a little salt and baking soda, and let stand for 10 minutes.

  3. Layer the potatoes, meat, and onions alternately in a pot, pour in the strained gravy, and cover tightly.

  4. Stew gently for another hour, shaking occasionally to prevent burning.

  5. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

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.

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.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Slow stewing breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and the gravy rich.
Dripping
Fat carries flavor and browns the vegetables and cutlets before the liquid goes in.
Flour
Starch thickens the stock into a smooth gravy that clings to the meat.
Onions
Cooking softens their sharpness and adds sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrot
Sweetness and body from cooked carrot flavor the gravy.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and body to the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into the stock. Flour added dry or into hot liquid clumps, because starch granules swell on contact. Mixing it with cold water first lets the granules separate, so the gravy thickens smoothly once heated.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, flour, pepper. 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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