Name: The Doctor's Mutton-Steak, Fried
Ingredients: 2 mutton steaks; coarse sea salt; black pepper; mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce); 1 cup mutton broth; ½ cup white or red wine; seasonal vegetables (e.g., green peas, young carrots, small turnips, celery, sorrel, parsley, haricots)

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 ↓

The Doctor's Mutton-Steak, Fried

Ingredients

2 mutton steaks
coarse sea salt
black pepper
mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
1 cup mutton broth
½ cup white or red wine
seasonal vegetables (e.g., green peas, young carrots, small turnips, celery, sorrel, parsley, haricots)

Directions

Prepare and brown

Season both sides of the mutton steaks with salt and pepper.
Grill the steaks over a charcoal fire, turning them several times.
Brown the steaks in a frying pan or shallow stew pan.

Braise and serve

Cover the steaks with a variety of seasonal vegetables.
Moisten with mutton broth and wine.
Cover tightly and simmer gently over low heat, shaking occasionally to prevent sticking.
Serve the steaks on a hot dish and pour mushroom ketchup over each.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton steaks: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle simmering in liquid.
Mutton broth: Adds moisture and savoury depth to the braising liquid.
White or red wine: Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid.
Seasonal vegetables: Add sweetness, texture and freshness to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Simmering gently with the lid on. Low, covered simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton slowly and keeps the meat moist. Boiling hard toughens the muscle fibres, and shaking helps prevent the meat from sticking to the pan.

Swap the peas

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

Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Chestnutfits about as well
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, mushroom, red wine, carrot, turnip, celery. 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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Green Peas229 recipes

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes

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The Doctor's Mutton-Steak, Fried