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 ↓
Mutton Stew
Ingredients
Directions
In a soup kettle, heat the fat over low heat until melted.
Add the chopped vegetables and cook for 10 minutes.
Stir in the mutton and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in the boiling water and bring to a boil, then skim off any foam.
Mix the flour with a little cold water to make a paste, then add it to the stew.
Season with salt and pepper, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.
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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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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Pepper + carrottop 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 meat and rich savory flavor that the stew is built around.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer, looser-bodied stew.
- Fat from the meat
- Carries flavor and helps brown the vegetables and meat at the start.
The step that matters
Stirring the mutton while it cooks. Stirring constantly keeps the meat from sticking and scorching on the hot base of the kettle before the water goes in, which would leave a burnt taste in the stew.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, pepper, carrot, turnip, meat):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, pepper, carrot, turnip, meat. 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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