Name: Small Mutton Pies
Ingredients: 1 neck of mutton; 1 tablespoon stock; 1 shallot, chopped; mushrooms, chopped; parsley, chopped; thyme, chopped; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; pastry for small pies

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Small Mutton Pies

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 the filling

Remove the skin and sinews from the mutton and mince it finely.
In a stewpan, combine the minced mutton with stock, shallot, mushrooms, parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt.
Cook the mixture over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then let it cool.

Bake and serve

Fill the pastry with the cooled mutton mixture and bake for about 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
After baking, cut the tops off the pies and fill them with additional stock if desired.
Serve the pies on a napkin.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton: Provides the main savoury meat filling, which firms and browns as it cooks.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and earthy savour to the filling.
Shallot: Adds mild aromatic sweetness that builds the flavour base.
Stock: Adds moisture and savour to the filling, and extra liquid after baking if desired.

Swap the shallot

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

Shallotthe original
Carrotfits about as well
Spinachfits less well
Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, mushroom, parsley, thyme, 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.