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Hashed Mutton with Herbs

A hash of mutton cooked with butter, shallot, parsley, mushrooms, flour, and broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hashed Mutton with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a casserole.

  2. Add the minced shallot, parsley, and mushrooms.

  3. Cook gently.

  4. Gradually mix in the flour and broth.

  5. Stew until flavors combine.

  6. Let the mixture cool slightly.

Finish and serve

  1. Mince into the underdone mutton without boiling.

  2. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides fat for cooking the shallot and mushrooms and adds rich flavor.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, lightly bound sauce.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that moistens the mutton and carries flavor.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savoriness and moisture to the sauce.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, sweet onion flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Mince into the underdone mutton without boiling.. Boiling the sauce after the flour is added can cause it to break or turn lumpy, and high heat toughens the meat's proteins. Keeping the heat gentle preserves a smooth texture in both sauce and meat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, mushroom, flour, pepper):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, mushroom, flour, 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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