[1] François Massialot's 1693 edition of Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois gives details of a haricot of mutton chops with turnips.

Larousse Gastronomique comments, "the dish is popularly supposed to have been named after the Battle of Navarino" to celebrate the 1827 victory of France and its allies,[6] and some sources accept this.

[7] The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term from 1866, and calls it a "humorous alteration of navet ... apparently after the Battle ... or perhaps alluding to the dish as characteristic of Navarre".

Auguste Escoffier,[11] Madame Saint-Ange,[12] Eugénie Brazier,[13] Marcel Boulestin,[14] Elizabeth David,[15] Craig Claiborne,[16] Jane Grigson,[17] and the co-authors of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child,[18] all specify the same basic ingredients: mutton or lamb, turnips, onions and potatoes.

The printanier – spring – version is no longer necessarily seasonal: Beck et al note that the additional peas and French beans that distinguish it are available frozen all year round.