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Mutton Steaks Stewed

A slow‑cooked mutton stew with rice and onions, finished by separating the onions and arranging rice and meat on a dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Steaks Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into thin steaks.

  2. Place the steaks in a saucepan with whole pepper, rice, onions, and enough water to cover everything.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew slowly, skimming often until the meat is tender.

  2. Remove the onions, place the rice on a dish, and lay the meat on top.

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. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 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

Mutton
Provides the main protein, which softens into tender meat during slow stewing.
Rice
Absorbs the cooking liquid and softens, forming the bed under the meat.
Onions
Release sweetness and flavour into the stewing liquid before being removed.
Whole pepper
Adds a pungent aroma and warm flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stew slowly and skim often. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer lets connective tissue in the mutton break down slowly, so the meat turns tender instead of tough. Skimming removes foam and fat that would otherwise cloud the broth and taste greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, rice. 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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