Name: To Hash Mutton, Beef, &
Ingredients: meat (mutton or beef); sauce (as per recipe 305 or 401); parsley (for garnish)

Why it works: Meat and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,040 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Hash Mutton, Beef, &

Ingredients

meat (mutton or beef)
sauce (as per recipe 305 or 401)
parsley (for garnish)

Directions

Cut the meat into slices about ¼ inch thick, trimming off all sinews, skin, and gristle.
Prepare your sauce and warm it in a pan.
Add the meat to the sauce and let it simmer gently until thoroughly warm, avoiding boiling to prevent toughness.
Select the least cooked parts of the joint for hashing.
For serving, place the hash in a deep dish or tureen.
To warm leftovers, set the dish in a pan of boiling water until heated through.
If using a leg of mutton, do not destroy the marrow bone; saw it in two and serve it on a plate garnished with parsley.

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.

Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,040 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,167 recipes
Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,693 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).