Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Haricot Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim off some fat from the mutton and cut it into thin chops.
Put the chops and fat trimmings into a frying pan and fry until pale brown, but do not cook fully.
Cut the carrots and turnips into dice and slice the onions.
Slightly fry the vegetables in the same fat until just softened, without browning.
Make the stew
Layer the mutton at the bottom of a stewpan, followed by the vegetables.
Pour in enough boiling water to cover everything.
Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, then reduce heat and simmer gently until the meat is tender.
Skim off any remaining fat, season with pepper, salt, and ketchup, and serve.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,252 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton neck
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful through long, gentle simmering.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during simmering.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they cook in the broth.
- Onions
- Add savoury depth and sweetness to the broth as they soften.
- Ketchup or harvey's sauce
- Adds tangy, savoury depth to the seasoning of the finished stew.
The step that matters
Fry the vegetables without browning them. Gently softening the vegetables in the fat, rather than browning them, keeps their flavour mild and sweet so they blend into the broth without turning bitter or sharp.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, pepper, ketchup):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, pepper, ketchup. 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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