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Hotch-potch

A stew of mutton or lamb chops with carrots, turnips, onions, green peas, celery, lettuce, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the fat from the mutton or lamb chops.

  2. Prepare the vegetables by cutting them into small slices.

Layer and simmer

  1. In a stewpan, layer the chops and cover with mixed vegetables.

  2. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

  3. Cover with water and let it simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours.

  4. Ensure the vegetables are well cooked but not dissolved.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or lamb chops
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the broth during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they soften during the slow cooking.
Turnips
Add mild bitterness and body, becoming tender during the simmer.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the stewing liquid.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a bright colour, cooking quickly once added.

The step that matters

Simmering until the vegetables are well cooked but not dissolved. A gentle simmer cooks the meat and vegetables through while keeping the vegetables intact. A hard boil can break vegetables down into mush and make the broth cloudy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, lettuce, pepper):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, lettuce, 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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