Name: Boiled Necks of Mutton, a l'aNGLAISE
Ingredients: 2 necks of mutton; water; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2-3 carrots; 2-3 turnips; gravy; caper-sauce

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 ↓

Boiled Necks of Mutton, a l'aNGLAISE

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the necks

Saw off the ends of the necks of mutton and shorten the rib-bones to 4 inches.
Detach the spine-bone from the neck and saw off the remaining spine adhering to the ribs.
Pare the fat smooth and place the necks in a stewpan with water, salt, carrots, and turnips.

Boil

Boil for about 2 hours until done.

Dish and serve

Dish up the necks so the uncovered ends of the rib-bones fall between each other.
Garnish with mashed turnips and turned carrots.
Serve with gravy and caper-sauce.

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.

Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,878 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + turniptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,558 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Turnip + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together943 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Carrot + saucetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,509 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton necks: Provide the main meat; long simmering turns their tough connective tissue tender and rich.
Carrots: Add mild sweetness and colour to the broth and the garnish.
Turnips: Add a gentle, slightly peppery sweetness and a soft texture when mashed.

The step that matters

Boiling for about 2 hours. Keep the water at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil. Vigorous boiling toughens the meat's outer fibres and can break the necks apart, while a gentle simmer lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin so the meat becomes tender.

Swap the carrot

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

Leekfits better
Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits about as well
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, 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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

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Boiled Necks of Mutton, a l'aNGLAISE