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Hashed Mutton

A hash of cold mutton cooked with onion, gravy, ketchup, Port wine, cloves, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Hashed Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cold mutton.

  2. Place it in a stew-pan with boiled onion, water, and gravy.

  3. Add ketchup, Port wine, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer the mixture without boiling.

  2. Serve with pickles, button mushrooms, and sippets.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Port wine + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Ketchup + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together425 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

Cold mutton
Provides the main meat, which is gently reheated so it stays moist and tender.
Boiled onion
Adds soft body and mild sweetness to the hash.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid and savoury flavour that binds the hash together.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Ketchup
Adds tangy acidity and sweetness that balance the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer the mixture without boiling.. The mutton is already cooked, so vigorous boiling would toughen its proteins and make it dry and stringy. Gentle simmering reheats it evenly while keeping it tender and keeps the sauce from reducing too quickly or breaking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ketchup, port wine, clove, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ketchup, port wine, clove, pepper. 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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