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Mutton and Potato Pie

A savory pie made with boiled mutton, potatoes, and a buttery breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton and Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Saw the rib bones across, remove the short ends, fold the flap under, and bind securely.

  2. Place the meat in a pot with enough boiling stock (or water and flavoring vegetables) to barely cover it, and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

  3. Drain the meat well.

Coat and bake

  1. Beat the egg, then add the parsley, herbs, and a good seasoning of salt and pepper, and coat the meat thickly with this mixture.

  2. Cover the meat lightly with bread crumbs and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until well browned, basting frequently with hot fat.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, heat the butter, add the flour, stir and cook slowly until well browned.

  2. Add 1 pint of boiling stock from the larger pot, stir until boiling, season to taste, and simmer gently until required.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Egg
Binds the parsley and herb seasoning so it adheres to the meat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust over the coated meat in the oven.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor when cooked with the flour.
Flour
Cooked with the butter to form a roux that thickens the stock sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour. Cooking the roux slowly until well browned develops nutty flavor and color; if rushed or left too pale, the sauce tastes raw and looks washed out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, egg, bread, 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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