Name: Saute of Mutton Cutlets, Sauce Aux Truffles
Ingredients: 2 necks of mutton; ½ cup clarified butter; 1 cup prepared sauce (Espagnol sauce with sherry); 8 truffles, thinly sliced; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; mixed pepper to taste

Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Saute of Mutton Cutlets, Sauce Aux Truffles

Ingredients

2 necks of mutton
½ cup clarified butter
1 cup prepared sauce (Espagnol sauce with sherry)
8 truffles, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
mixed pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the mutton necks for cutlets, cutting them larger than lamb cutlets.
Heat the clarified butter in a sauté pan.
Arrange the cutlets in the pan with the bones facing right.

Cook and season

Sauté the cutlets over high heat until cooked through.
Remove the cutlets and pour off excess butter.
Add the prepared sauce to the pan and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
Season with mixed pepper and salt.

Serve

Dish the cutlets, placing half the truffles in the center of each dish.
Pour the hot sauce over the cutlets and serve.

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.

Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton necks: Provide the meat for the cutlets, which are cut larger than lamb cutlets.
Clarified butter: Conducts heat in the pan and gives the cutlets a rich, browned surface.
Truffles: Add a deep, earthy aroma to the dish.
Prepared sauce: Adds moisture and savory richness when poured over the cutlets.

The step that matters

Sautéing the cutlets over high heat until cooked through. High heat in hot clarified butter browns the surface quickly, building flavor, while the cutlets must reach full doneness through the thicker cut. Pulling them too early leaves the center underdone, and leaving them too long dries the meat.

“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.