Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Haricot Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the meat with a damp cloth if necessary and cut it into chops or trim pieces nicely.
Prepare the vegetables by cutting them into small squares, slices, or fillets as desired.
Brown and thicken
Heat the dripping in a stew pan and lightly fry the meat on both sides.
Cut the onions into rings and fry them with the meat.
Remove the dripping from the meat, add the vegetables, flour, salt, and pepper, and stir well.
Gradually add the hot water, stirring until it boils.
Simmer
Simmer for 1 to 1½ hours, or until the meat is tender, stirring often to prevent burning.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + turniptop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Provides the main body of the stew and becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it is stirred in with the hot water.
- Dripping
- Carries the frying of the meat and onions, adding richness and browning.
- Onions
- Soften during frying and simmering, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
- Carrot
- Softens during simmering and adds mild sweetness to the stew.
- Turnip
- Softens during simmering and adds a slightly peppery, earthy flavour to the stew.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour and hot water into the pan. Flour clumps if added to fat without being stirred in evenly, and adding liquid gradually while stirring lets the starch disperse and thicken into a smooth gravy rather than lumps. Stirring often during simmering also stops the flour and sugars at the base from scorching.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, carrot, turnip, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, carrot, turnip, 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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