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Haricot Mutton

A stew of mutton neck chops simmered with stock, onion, flour, butter, peppercorns, carrot, turnip, celery, bouquet garni, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Haricot Mutton

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Haricot Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the fat from the chops.

  2. Cut the vegetables into fancy shapes.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and brown the chops.

  2. Fry the chopped onion until soft.

  3. Mix the flour with a little water to make a smooth paste.

  4. Add the paste to the stewpan.

  5. Pour in the stock or water and bring to a boil.

  6. Add the chops and simmer gently for 1.5 hours, skimming occasionally.

  7. Add the trimmings to the stewpan.

Serve

  1. Boil the remaining vegetables separately.

  2. Once the meat is tender, arrange the chops in a circle on a dish.

  3. Pour the skimmed gravy over the chops.

  4. Garnish with the boiled vegetables.

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.

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Neck chops
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and rich in flavour.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy once mixed into a paste.
Butter
Fat that helps brown the chops, adding colour and roasted flavour to the stew.
Onion
Softened in fat, it adds a sweet, savoury base to the gravy.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness, colour and body to the stew and its garnish.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into a smooth paste. Flour added dry to hot liquid clumps and stays grainy. Mixing it first with a little cold water lets the starch disperse evenly, so it thickens the gravy smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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