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A Good Mutton Pie

A savory pie made with mutton loin, herbs, optional forcemeat, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Good Mutton Pie

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a pie dish and line it with the pastry.

  3. Remove the fat from the mutton loin and slice the meat into equal cutlets.

  4. Season the cutlets with salt and pepper or cayenne.

Assemble the pie

  1. Layer the cutlets in the dish, adding minced herbs and shallots between layers.

  2. If using, roll out the forcemeat thinly and place it between the cutlets.

  3. Add mutton kidneys if desired for extra flavor.

  4. Pour in a little cold water or gravy made from the bones.

  5. Roll out the pastry cover to ½ inch thick, seal the pie securely, and trim the edges.

  6. Decorate the pie as desired and make a hole in the center.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours until cooked through.

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 + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 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

Pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and holds its shape while baking.
Mutton loin
Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender and cooked through during the long bake.
Mutton kidneys
Add a richer, more strongly flavored meat element to the filling.
Cold water or bone gravy
Adds moisture that turns to steam and softens the meat as the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Seal the pie securely. A tight seal keeps juices and steam inside the crust, so the meat cooks through in moist, tender form rather than drying out. Cutting the vent hole in the center lets excess steam escape so the crust does not burst.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Shallotthe 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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