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Mutton Hot-pot

A casserole of mutton, onions, and potatoes baked with gravy and dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 Hot-pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the onions and potatoes, then slice them.

  2. Grease a deep baking dish and line it with the sliced potatoes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a layer of onions, then the mutton cut into small pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Add another layer of onions and fill up with more potatoes.

  3. Pour in 1 pint of gravy or stock, cover with a lid or old dish, and bake for 2 hours.

  4. Remove the cover, drizzle dripping over the potatoes, and return to the oven 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. Onion + potatotop 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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth and vegetables take on during the long bake.
Potatoes
Form the layered topping that softens in the liquid and browns on top.
Onions
Add sweetness and moisture as they soften between the meat and potato layers.
Dripping
Adds fat that helps the exposed potatoes crisp and brown at the end.

The step that matters

Return the uncovered dish to the oven to brown. Removing the lid lets surface moisture evaporate, so the potatoes can take on colour and crispness. Without enough dry heat and fat, the top stays pale and soft.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, 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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