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Mutton Stew

A stew of sliced mutton, onions, ham, potatoes, and tomato catsup simmered in hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Layer potatoes in a pot.

  2. Add mutton, ham, and onions on top.

  3. Pour in tomato catsup and hot water.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Stew and finish

  1. Cover tightly and stew for 1.5 hours.

  2. Add water as needed.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour before serving.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during slow stewing.
Potatoes
Absorb the savory juices and add starch that adds body to the dish.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it is stirred into the cooking liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften during stewing.
Tomato catsup
Adds acidity and sweet tang to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour before serving. Flour added directly to hot liquid can clump. Mixing it smoothly with a little cold liquid first helps it thicken the gravy evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mutton, ham, pepper, flour, potato. 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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