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To Stew Mutton

A simple mutton stew with onions, carrot, shallot, broth, butter, flour, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Stew Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut thick slices from any part of the mutton.

  2. Place the mutton in a stewpan with salt, pepper, onions, carrot, and shallot.

Stew

  1. Cover the meat with broth and let it stew for 20 minutes to 1 hour, but not longer.

  2. Cover the stewpan tightly and turn the slices halfway through cooking.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add butter rolled in flour and 1-2 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow, moist stewing.
Broth
Cooks the meat gently and supplies liquid for the stew.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the cooking liquid and butter adds richness when stirred in before serving.
Onions
Soften during stewing and add sweetness and savory depth to the liquid.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami flavor to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Stew time. Stewing for longer than the stated window can leave the meat stringy and dry, so the cook should check tenderness at the lower end and stop before it breaks down too far.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, carrot, shallot, butter, flour, mushroom. 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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