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Oxford John

A mutton stew with gravy, lemon, flour, and fried bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Oxford John

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the stale leg of mutton into thin slices and remove all sinews.

  2. Season the slices with salt, pepper, mace, parsley, thyme, and shallots.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a good amount of butter in a stewpan until hot.

  2. Add the mutton slices and stir with a wooden spoon until three-quarters cooked.

  3. Add ½ pint of gravy and lemon juice, then thicken with flour and butter.

  4. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes, avoiding boiling to prevent toughness.

  5. Serve hot, garnished with fried bread slices.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale leg of mutton
Provides the meat that is cooked tender in the gravy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps begin the cooking of the mutton in the pan.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce that clings to the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and sauce.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the seasoned mutton.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil. Boiling tightens the proteins in meat and makes it tough and dry. Keeping the gravy at a gentle simmer for the stated 4-5 minutes lets the mutton stay tender while the sauce thickens.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, lemon. 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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