Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Pork Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the mutton into small pieces, about ¾ inch square, and the pork into thin slices.
Slice the onion and divide the rings if necessary.
Stew the meat
Place the mutton in a covered stew pan and add enough cold water to cover it.
Heat gradually and stew for 1 hour.
Add the pork slices, onion, salt, and pepper, and continue stewing until the meats are fully cooked.
Make the pastry and finish
If desired, prepare pastry for a meat pie crust by mixing 1 quart of flour, 3 tablespoons of lard, 2½ cups of milk, 1 teaspoon each of salt and baking soda, and 3 teaspoons of cream of tartar.
Roll out the pastry to 1 inch thick, cut into squares or diamonds, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Just before serving, thicken a cup of milk with 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour and stir it in.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Long slow stewing softens the tough connective tissue of cheap cuts into tender meat.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat and seasons the stew with savory, salty flavor as it cooks.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the milk mixture so the finished sauce becomes smooth and lightly bodied.
- Cream of tartar (in the method)
- Acidic salt that reacts with baking soda to help the pastry rise.
- Baking soda (in the method)
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the pastry.
The step that matters
Heat gradually and stew the mutton. Starting the mutton in cold water and heating slowly lets collagen break down gently into gelatin. Rapid boiling can toughen the meat's proteins and leave it chewy.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, onion, pepper):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Parsleythe original
- Marjoramfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, onion, 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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