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Breast of Mutton

A roasted mutton breast seasoned with herbs, onion, and spices, topped with bread crumbs and butter.

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 ↓

Breast of Mutton

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 the mutton

  1. Boil the mutton until the bones come out easily.

  2. Press the mutton between two plates under a weight and let it sit overnight.

  3. The next day, place the mutton in a 300°F (150°C) oven, cover, and heat slowly.

Make the stuffing topping

  1. Chop the parsley, sweet herbs, and onion.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped herbs, onion, egg, black pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Score the mutton and spread the herb mixture over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle grated bread and small bits of butter on top.

  2. Return to the oven and bake until light brown.

  3. Serve with a good brown sauce seasoned with pickled mushrooms.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton breast
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, gentle heating.
Egg
Binds the herb mixture so it holds together on top of the meat.
Grated bread
Forms a crumb layer that browns in the oven for a crisp finish.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the crumb topping brown and gives richness.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the herb mixture.

The step that matters

Heating the mutton slowly. Gentle, covered heat at a low oven temperature lets the connective tissue in the meat break down slowly, keeping the meat moist and tender rather than dry and tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, egg, pepper, bread, butter, sauce. 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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