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Mutton Hashed

A savory mutton hash cooked with broth, ketchup, browning, onion, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine gravy or broth, ketchup, browning, onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Heat over medium heat and thicken with flour and butter.

Finish and serve

  1. Once boiling, add the mutton and shake until thoroughly hot.

  2. Transfer to a soup dish and serve.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat that is heated through in the thickened sauce.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, coating sauce when heated with butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and works with flour to thicken the sauce.
Onion
Adds savory, aromatic flavor that mellows as it cooks in the liquid.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with the butter and liquid over heat so the starch swells and thickens evenly. Adding it cold or unmixed can leave lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ketchup, pepper, flour, butter, mutton. 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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