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Mutton, Hashed

A baked mutton hash layered with breadcrumbs, brown sauce, pickles, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton, Hashed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold mutton into thin slices.

  2. Boil the bones and trimmings to make stock for the brown sauce.

Layer

  1. Grease a pie dish and cover the bottom with a layer of breadcrumbs.

  2. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of brown sauce on top of the breadcrumbs.

  3. Arrange the slices of mutton slightly overlapping each other on top.

  4. Sprinkle with chopped pickles, coarse sea salt, and pepper.

  5. Cover lightly with more breadcrumbs and brown sauce.

  6. Repeat the layering process until all ingredients are used, finishing with a thick layer of breadcrumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with greased paper and bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve in the dish it was cooked in.

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. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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

Cold mutton
Provides the main meat, cooked already, so the bake mainly warms and combines it.
Breadcrumbs
Form absorbent layers that soak up brown sauce and give the hash a soft, moist texture.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury, tangy flavour that seasons the layers as they bake.
Pickles
Add sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Bake gently under greased paper. Low heat warms the cooked mutton through without drying it out, while the covering paper traps steam so the breadcrumb layers stay moist rather than browning too quickly.

“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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