Skip to main content
Main

Haricot of Mutton

A stew of mutton pieces simmered with potatoes, onions, herbs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Haricot of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the breast of mutton into pieces.

  2. Toss the pieces in butter until slightly colored.

Make the stew

  1. Thicken the butter with flour.

  2. Return the meat to the pan.

  3. Add stock, potatoes, onions, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, bay leaf, and nutmeg.

  4. Simmer gently until cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim carefully 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 rich, savory meat flavor that the stew is built around.
Butter
Carries fat for browning the meat and adds richness to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a body-rich sauce when cooked in the butter.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid and adds savory depth to the stew.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, softening as they simmer in the stew.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Toss the pieces in butter until slightly colored. Browning the meat surface through the Maillard reaction builds deeper, roasted flavor. Stopping at slight color keeps the meat from drying or toughening before the slow simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, potato, thyme, parsley, 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.

More mutton stew recipes

with Rice 14Irish 9with Carrots 5with Dumplings 4with Lettuce and Peas 4with Turnips 3 See all 234 →

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipes