Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
A Good Mutton Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll out the pastry and line a buttered dish with it.
Remove the fat from the mutton and slice it into equal cutlets.
Season the cutlets with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Assemble the pie
Layer the cutlets in the dish, adding minced herbs and eschalots if desired.
Optionally, add thinly rolled forcemeat and mutton kidneys between the layers.
Pour in a little cold water or gravy made from the bones.
Roll out the pastry for the top, making it at least ½ inch thick.
Seal the pie securely and trim the edges.
Make a hole in the center for steam to escape.
Bake
Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours until golden brown.
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.
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
- Mutton
- Provides the meat filling, whose juices and fat keep the cutlets moist as they cook.
- Mutton kidneys
- Add a rich, strongly flavoured meat component to the optional layers.
- Cold water or gravy made from bones
- Adds moisture so the filling steams and stays juicy during baking.
The step that matters
Make a hole in the center for steam to escape. Without a vent, steam from the meat and liquid builds pressure inside the sealed crust, which can push the top apart or make the filling soggy.
“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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