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Modern Potato Pasty

A baked dish of mutton cutlets topped with mashed potatoes and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Modern Potato Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a tin mold, arrange the mutton cutlets, trimmed of fat, and dredged with flour, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Add enough broth or water to create gravy, and stir in mushroom catsup or Harvey's sauce.

Make the potato crust

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash with milk or cream.

  2. Spread the potato mixture over the mutton, leaving a rough surface.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the mold and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, depending on size.

  2. Serve the pasty directly from the mold, keeping the cover on until ready to 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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets
Provide the meat that forms the main body of the pasty.
Flour
Dusts the meat so it browns and slightly thickens the gravy.
Potatoes
Form a soft, sturdy topping that holds moisture under the cover.
Milk or cream
Makes the mashed potato smooth and rich in texture.
Mushroom catsup or harvey's sauce
Adds savory depth and umami to the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the mold while baking. Keeping the cover on traps steam so the meat cooks gently in its own gravy and stays moist. Removing it early lets the gravy reduce and the meat dry out before the potato topping is fully set.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, pepper, mushroom, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, pepper, mushroom, milk. 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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