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Uncooked Mutton Minced

A stew of minced mutton, bacon, gravy, butter, lettuce, peas, and onion, served with rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Uncooked Mutton Minced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fat off the mutton.

  2. Chop it finely with the bacon.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

Stew

  1. Place in a saucepan with gravy and butter.

  2. Add the chopped lettuces, peas, and onion. Stir together.

  3. Heat gently until hot. Cover.

  4. Let stew on the side of the fire for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve in a hot dish, surrounded by well-cooked rice.

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. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Provides the meat and fat that give the stew its rich flavour and tender body.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat that carries flavour through the minced meat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the stew taste smooth and rounded.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour so the mince simmers without drying out.
Young peas
Add sweetness and a fresh, tender texture to the stew.
Young lettuces
Soften during stewing, adding moisture and a mild, vegetal body.

The step that matters

Stew gently with the lid on. Slow, gentle heat with the lid covering the pan keeps the minced meat tender and moist. Boiling hard toughens the protein and can dry out the liquid, so keep the stew at a quiet simmer for the full three hours.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, peas, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, peas, onion. 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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