Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Mutton Pie
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.
Make the mutton
Melt the butter in a stewpan and add the mutton cutlets.
Fry the cutlets until they begin to brown, then add enough water to cover them.
Let the mutton stew until fully cooked.
Assemble and bake
Prepare a pie dish with a layer of short pastry around the edges.
Place the cooked cutlets in the dish with sliced potatoes, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Pour the gravy over the cutlets and potatoes.
Cover with another layer of pastry to finish the pie.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 meat, which becomes tender and flavorful through frying and slow stewing.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying, helping the cutlets brown and carrying flavor.
- Short pastry
- Forms the rich, crisp crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body to the filling, soaking up the savory gravy as the pie bakes.
The step that matters
Let the mutton stew until fully cooked. Mutton must be cooked through before baking, because the pie's pastry browns in the oven and will not cook the meat sufficiently on its own. Tender meat also keeps the filling moist.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper):
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Carrotfits about as well
- Onionfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, 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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