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Mutton, to Hash

A hash of sliced mutton cooked with onion, gravy, and optional seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove 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 ↓

Mutton, to Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut slices of dressed mutton, both fat and lean.

  2. Flour the slices.

Make the hash

  1. Boil the onion in 2-3 tablespoons of water.

  2. Add gravy and seasoned meat to the onion, heating it without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve in a covered dish.

  2. Add a clove, currant jelly, and port wine for a different flavor.

  3. Warm pickled cucumber or walnuts in the dish for variety.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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

Mutton
Provides the main meat, with fat adding moisture and flavor as it heats.
Flour
Dusting the slices helps thicken the gravy and gives the meat a light coating.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the hash once boiled in water.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid and body that keep the meat moist while it heats.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and can make the slices dry and stringy, so the hash should be kept just below a boil.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, onion, pepper, currant, port wine, cucumber):

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, onion, pepper, currant, port wine, cucumber. 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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