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Haricot Mutton

A stew of mutton chops simmered in gravy with onion, turnip, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Haricot Mutton

Why it works: Onion and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,585 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Haricot Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chops

  1. Cut the mutton into thick chops.

  2. Dredge flour over the chops and fry in butter until half done and browned.

Stew

  1. Transfer the chops to a stewpan and cover with gravy.

  2. Add sliced onion and turnip, and stew until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the chops and strain the liquid through a sieve, skimming off the fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt butter in the stewpan, thicken with flour, and gradually add the strained liquid while stirring to prevent lumps.

  2. Add the chops and white wine, and stew gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve the chops hot with sauce poured over them.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + turniptop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mutton
Its connective tissue softens during stewing, leaving the meat tender and rich.
Flour
Dusting the chops helps them brown, and thickens the sauce when cooked with butter.
Butter
Fat for frying the chops and building the thickened sauce, adding flavor and richness.
Turnip
Adds body and a mild sweetness to the stewed gravy as it cooks.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, brightening the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour and butter. Stirring constantly while adding the liquid gradually keeps the starch dispersed, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, glossy sauce.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, butter, onion, white wine):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, butter, onion, white wine. 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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