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Mutton Soup

A hearty soup made with mutton, water, onions, optional vegetables, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Mutton Soup

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into pieces.

  2. Place the mutton in a pot and cover with water.

Simmer

  1. Add chopped onions and any desired vegetables.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1-2 hours until the meat is tender.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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; its connective tissue softens into tender meat and a rich broth during long simmering.
Onions
Add aroma and a mild sweetness as they soften and flavour the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after bringing to a boil. A rolling boil toughens meat fibres and can make the broth cloudy. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the mutton break down slowly, so the meat becomes tender and the broth stays clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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