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Mutton, Hashed

A baked layered dish of sliced mutton, brown sauce, bread crumbs, and gherkins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton, Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into thin slices.

  2. Boil the bones and trimmings for stock for the brown sauce.

Layer

  1. Grease a pie dish and cover the bottom with a layer of bread crumbs.

  2. Add 2-3 tablespoons of brown sauce and arrange the mutton slices on top, slightly overlapping.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped gherkins, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cover lightly with more bread crumbs and sauce.

  5. Repeat the layering process until all ingredients are used, finishing with a thick layer of bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with greased paper and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve in the dish it was cooked in.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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, cooked gently in the layers until tender.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savory depth that keeps the layers from drying out.
Bread crumbs
Form the layers between the meat and soak up sauce, giving the hash a soft, set body.
Gherkins
Add acidity and sharpness that cut through the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Covering the dish while baking. Greased paper over the top traps moisture so the crumbs and meat steam rather than dry out during the long bake at a low temperature.

“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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