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Mutton and Potato Pie

A pie made with sliced mutton, potatoes, onions, and gravy, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton and Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into small thin slices.

  2. Parboil and slice the potatoes and onions.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line the bottom of a pie dish with a layer of potatoes.

  2. Add a layer of mutton and a few slices of onion, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of potatoes.

  4. Pour in the gravy and cover with greased paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove the paper 15 minutes before serving to allow the potatoes to brown.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat filling, cooked gently in the oven until tender.
Potatoes
Form the layers that soften during baking and then brown on top when the paper is removed.
Gravy
Adds moisture so the layers stay juicy as the pie bakes.
Onions
Add savoury flavour that mellows and sweetens as they cook among the meat and potatoes.

The step that matters

Removing the paper before serving. The paper traps steam so the meat and potatoes cook through without drying. Removing it for the final 15 minutes lets surface starch dry and brown, which is why timing matters.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, meat, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, meat, 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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