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Mutton

A mutton curry with beetroot, carrots, spinach, soya greens, and spices, simmered in a ghee-based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 699 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mutton

  1. Boil the mutton with chukundar and carrots until tender.

  2. Slice the meat.

  3. Grind the spices into a paste.

  4. Strain the gravy.

Make the curry

  1. Sauté with ghee and onions.

  2. Add paluk and soya to the gravy.

  3. Prepare the flour as in ash bogurrah.

  4. Combine the flour with the gravy.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Add the meat back into the pot.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Mix in the syrup.

  9. Sprinkle with saffron dissolved in water before serving.

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. Beetroot + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together699 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Lime + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lime + beetroottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Flour + beetroottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 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
Provides the main protein and body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and greens.
Ghee
Adds richness and fat for flavour when the onions are sautéed.
Onions
Build savoury flavour and body as they cook down with the fat.
Chukundar (beetroot)
Adds earthy sweetness and a deep colour to the gravy.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced gravy.

The step that matters

Combine the flour with the gravy. Flour added to hot liquid can clump into lumps unless it is well dispersed first, which leaves the gravy uneven in texture.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ghee, flour, sugar, onion, beetroot, carrot):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Limethe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Pumpkinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ghee, flour, sugar, onion, beetroot, carrot. 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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