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Hot-pot

A layered stew of steak or mutton, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, kidneys, oysters, and optional snipe baked in an earthen pot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot-pot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. Layer the steak or mutton, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and kidneys in an earthen pot.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Pour ketchup over the layers.

  4. Top with oysters and the snipe, if using.

  5. Cover the pot with pastry.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for at least 2 hours.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak or mutton
Provides the meat and rich savoury flavour that the dish is built around.
Potatoes
Bulk up the pot and absorb cooking juices, giving a hearty, starchy body.
Kidneys
Add a deep, mineral-rich savoury flavour and a tender, slightly firm texture.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury note that seasons the layers as they cook.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and savoury depth that colours and flavours the layers.

The step that matters

Seal the pastry cover. A tight pastry lid traps steam so the meat and potatoes cook in their own juices and stay moist. Gaps let steam escape, drying the contents and reducing flavour.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, mushroom, pepper, ketchup, oyster):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, mushroom, pepper, ketchup, oyster. 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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