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Hashed Mutton a LA Bourgeoise

A dish of leftover roasted mutton, sautéed with butter and cullis, served with soft poached eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hashed Mutton a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the skin and coarse fibers from the leftover mutton.

  2. Cut the meat into small, thin pieces and place them in a saucepan.

Warm and serve

  1. Add a few spoonfuls of cullis and ½ cup of butter to the meat.

  2. Warm the mixture gently, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Serve the hashed mutton with soft poached eggs arranged around it.

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. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover roasted leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the hash, providing the meat texture and flavor.
Cullis (sauce)
Adds moisture and savory flavor so the chopped meat does not dry out.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the hash a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Soft poached eggs
Served alongside as a rich, runny-yolked accompaniment to the meat.

The step that matters

Warming the mixture gently. Above a gentle heat, the sauce and butter can separate or become greasy, and the meat toughens and dries. Keeping it below a boil keeps the hash moist and cohesive.

“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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