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Mutton

A stew of minced mutton cooked with lettuce, peas, and optional vegetables, served with boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the mutton, mixing it with the shredded lettuces, peas, salt, pepper, water, butter, and green onions if using.

  2. Stir the mixture well with a fork over a clear, gentle fire until hot.

Stew

  1. Cover the pot and place it by the side of the stove or on a high trivet to stew gently for 2 hours.

  2. If desired, add cucumbers, mushrooms, curry powder, or onion during the last part of cooking.

Serve

  1. Serve with a dish of boiled rice.

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. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Peas + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 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 protein and rich meaty flavour that the stew is built around.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the stew a smooth mouthfeel.
Young lettuces
Adds moisture and a soft, tender vegetable texture as they wilt during stewing.
Young peas
Adds sweetness and a tender texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Stewing gently with the lid on. Low, gentle heat lets the mince become tender without toughening or drying out. Too much heat can seize the meat and scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, lettuce, peas, pepper, butter, cucumber, mushroom):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, lettuce, peas, pepper, butter, cucumber, mushroom. 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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