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Winter Hotch-potch

A hearty stew of mutton, carrots, turnips, peas, onion, and celery simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Winter Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into neat chops.

Make the stew

  1. In a large pot, combine water, half of the sliced carrots and turnips, and soaked peas.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the whole carrot and turnip, bruise them, and return to the pot.

  4. Add the mutton and the remaining sliced carrots and turnips.

  5. Season with pepper and salt, then simmer for 45 minutes.

  6. Shortly before serving, add the chopped onion and celery.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat flavour and, as it simmers, richness to the broth.
Dried green peas
Break down during long simmering, thickening the broth and adding body and earthy sweetness.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour, and hold their shape through the long cooking.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery sweetness and soften as they cook.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic savoury note when added near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Remove the whole carrot and turnip, bruise them, and return to the pot.. Bruising the cooked vegetables breaks their cell walls, releasing starch and flavour into the broth so it thickens and tastes fuller. Removing them first keeps the rest of the vegetables intact.

Swap the peas

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

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

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