Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Mutton

A baked casserole of sliced mutton and macaroni layered with tomato sauce and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

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.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove fat and skin from the cold mutton and cut it into thin slices.

Layer and bake

  1. In a buttered dish, layer the mutton slices and then a layer of cooked macaroni.

  2. Season each layer with salt and pepper, and moisten with tomato sauce.

  3. Repeat the layering until the dish is full.

  4. Top with buttered crumbs and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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

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

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its savory meaty flavor.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the layers from drying out during baking.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture between the layers of meat.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown evenly in the oven.

The step that matters

Moistening each layer with tomato sauce. Cooked meat and pasta dry out quickly in the oven, so adding sauce to each layer keeps the interior moist and prevents a dry, crumbly result.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, 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.

More scalloped mutton recipes

and Tomatoes 3 See all 17 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes