Name: Winter Hotch-potch
Ingredients: 1 neck or loin of mutton, cut into neat chops; 4 carrots, sliced; 4 turnips, sliced; 4 quarts water; 1 pound dried green peas, soaked overnight; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 onion, chopped; 1 head of celery

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Winter Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Start the broth

Combine 4 quarts water with half of the sliced carrots and turnips, and the soaked peas in a large pot.
Bring to a boil and cook for 2 hours.
Remove the whole carrot and turnip, bruise them, and return to the pot.

Finish and serve

Add the mutton chops, remaining carrots and turnips, pepper, and salt.
Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
Before serving, stir in the chopped onion and celery.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 long simmering, making the meat tender and enriching the broth.
Dried green peas: Their starch breaks down during cooking and thickens the broth, giving it body.
Carrots: They add natural sweetness and color, and their bruised pieces release starch that thickens the broth.
Turnips: They add mild sweetness and body, and bruised pieces help thicken the broth.
Onion: Added at the end, it contributes a sharp aroma and savory flavor to the finished stew.
Celery: Added at the end, it contributes a fresh, herbal aroma and a light savory note.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after reducing the heat. A gentle simmer lets the mutton's connective tissue slowly break down into tender meat without toughening the proteins. A hard boil would toughen the meat, break up the pieces, and cloud the broth.

Swap the peas

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

Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Chickpeafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, pepper, onion, celery. 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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Winter Hotch-potch