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Hotch-potch

A mutton stew with turnips, carrots, peas, celery, cabbage, and chops, simmered over two days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Stew the neck of mutton for several hours with turnips and carrots cut for broth.

  2. Add 1 quart of shelled peas, celery, and hearts of cabbage.

  3. When cold, skim off the fat and remove the meat.

Finish and serve

  1. The next day, stew again, adding younger peas and some chops from the best end of the neck of mutton.

  2. Ensure the vegetables are plentiful in the soup.

  3. Serve in a tureen, leaving the chops 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it stews for hours.
Turnips
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during stewing.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften during stewing.
Shelled peas
Add sweetness and soft texture to the soup.
Hearts of cabbage
Add mild flavour and tender bulk to the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after chilling. Fat from the mutton rises and sets on cold broth, so removing it before reheating keeps the soup clean-tasting and not greasy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, carrot, celery, cabbage. 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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