Name: Modern Potatoe Pasty
Ingredients: 2 to 3 pounds mutton cutlets, trimmed of fat; flour for dredging; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; broth or water (enough to make gravy); 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup or Harvey's sauce (optional)

Why it works: Pepper and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Modern Potatoe Pasty

Ingredients

2 to 3 pounds mutton cutlets, trimmed of fat
flour for dredging
coarse sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
broth or water (enough to make gravy)
1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup or Harvey's sauce (optional)

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

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Arrange the mutton cutlets at the bottom of a tin mold with a perforated movable top.

Season and add liquid

Lightly dredge the cutlets with flour and season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
Pour enough broth or water over the cutlets to create gravy.
Add mushroom ketchup or Harvey's sauce if desired.

Bake

Cover the mold and bake until the meat is cooked through.

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.

Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together685 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,253 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in the covered mold.
Flour: Lightly coats the cutlets, helping the surface brown and thickening the gravy as it cooks.
Mushroom ketchup or harvey's sauce: Adds savoury, umami depth to the gravy; optional in this recipe.

The step that matters

Cover the mold and bake until the meat is cooked through. Covering traps steam so the meat cooks gently in its own juices and gravy, keeping it moist. Cooking until fully done matters for safety, and the cook should check the meat rather than rely only on time.

“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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Modern Potatoe Pasty