Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Hashed Mutton for a Dish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hash
Cut the mutton into thin slices.
Place the mutton in a stewpan with slices of pickles, cucumbers, walnuts, or onions.
Make the sauce
In a separate pan, cook chopped eschalots or onions with fresh butter over low heat until partially done.
Add 1 pint of veal stock or gravy and a little ketchup to the pan, and boil for 10 minutes.
Season with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.
Strain the sauce over the mutton and let it stew gently until thoroughly hot.
Serve
For serving, grill the bones seasoned with pepper and salt and place them over the hash.
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.
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Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,991 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,394 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Forms the main body of the hash, providing the meat that the sauce coats and heats through.
- Veal stock or gravy
- Supplies the liquid that becomes the sauce, carrying savoury flavour and moisture into the meat.
- Fresh butter
- Cooks the eschalots or onions gently, adding richness and carrying their flavour into the sauce.
- Eschalots or onions
- Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the sauce as they soften in butter.
- Pickles or cucumbers or walnuts or onions
- Adds acidity and crunch, contrasting with the soft, savoury meat.
The step that matters
Strain the sauce over the mutton and let it stew gently until thoroughly hot. Stewing gently rather than boiling keeps the thin mutton slices tender and prevents them from toughening, while the sauce heats evenly through the meat.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, butter, veal, ketchup, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, butter, veal, ketchup, 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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