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Loin of Mutton, Stewed

A stew of mutton loin cooked slowly with onion, pepper, salt, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Loin of Mutton, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Render the fat

  1. Place the mutton in a stewpan, fat side down.

  2. Cover the pan closely and fry gently until the fat melts significantly.

  3. Remove the meat and pour off the fat.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the cold water.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Skim the fat off the top.

  4. Return the gravy to the stewpan with the meat, onion, pepper, and salt.

  5. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Allow the meat to cool.

  2. Serve with salad and pickles.

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

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

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the dish and the gravy.
Cold water
Combines with the rendered juices to form the gravy once the fat is removed.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and body to the gravy during stewing.

The step that matters

Skim the fat off the top. Fat that is not removed after cooling stays on the surface and makes the gravy greasy. Chilling lets the fat solidify so it lifts off cleanly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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