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Mutton with Mangoes

A mutton dish cooked with mangoes, spices, and a sweet syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mutton with Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mutton

  1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add ghee and sliced onions.

  3. Fry until brown.

  4. Add the mutton to the saucepan.

  5. Fry until the meat is browned and mixed with the ghee and onions.

  6. Add pounded coriander seeds, salt, and a little water.

  7. Boil until the meat is nearly done.

  8. Strain the gravy into a separate saucepan.

  9. Fry the meat and gravy again in ghee with cloves.

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Boil the sliced mangoes in water until tender.

  2. Make a syrup with sugar, water, and lime juice, then add to the mangoes.

  3. Let the mangoes sit for an hour.

  4. Separate the mangoes from the syrup.

  5. Boil the remaining mangoes in water.

  6. Mash the mangoes.

  7. Mix the mashed mangoes with the syrup.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the mashed mangoes with the meat.

  2. Boil for a few minutes.

  3. Add the preserved mangoes, turmeric, and a little saffron mixed in rice milk.

  4. Simmer for a short time.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mango + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Mango + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together420 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and rich as it simmers in the gravy.
Ghee
Adds fat for browning the onions and meat and carries the spice flavours.
Unripe mangoes
Provide tartness and body, softening into a thick, tangy pulp when boiled and mashed.
Onions
Caramelise in the ghee to build a deep brown, sweet base for the gravy.
Sugar
Sweetens the mango syrup and balances the sourness of the unripe fruit and lime.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture, though the record does not state when they are added.

The step that matters

Fry the meat until browned in the ghee and onions. Browning develops deep, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Meat that is pale and steamed instead of seared will taste flat and dull in the finished gravy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ghee, mango, ginger, coriander, pepper, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ghee, mango, ginger, coriander, pepper, clove. 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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