Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Breast of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a saucepan, bring 1 quart of water and 1 pint of water to a boil.
Cut the mutton into large pieces and prepare the vegetables by slicing them.
Simmer and serve
Once the water is boiling, add the mutton and vegetables.
Simmer for about 2 hours.
Season with pepper and salt to taste.
If desired, cook rice or haricot beans separately and add them to the dish before serving.
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.
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Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together590 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,097 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 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
- Breast of mutton
- Provides the main meat, whose connective tissue softens into tender pieces during long simmering.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during simmering.
- Turnips
- Soften during simmering and add a mildly sweet, earthy flavour to the broth.
- Onions
- Soften and release savoury, sweet flavour into the liquid, building the stew's base taste.
The step that matters
Simmer for about 2 hours. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue in the mutton so it becomes tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and can make the broth cloudy, so keep the liquid at a slow simmer.
Swap the parsnip
The recipe marks parsnip as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipthe original
- Spinachfits less well
- Okrafits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, 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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