Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the cutlets of all fat and save the fat for suet.
Dip the cutlets in cold water and dredge both sides with flour and a little pepper.
Cook
Rinse a thick iron saucepan with spring water, leaving 3 or 4 tablespoons in it.
Arrange the cutlets in a single layer in the saucepan over a very gentle fire.
When they begin to stew, add a little salt.
Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours.
If moisture is low, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of cold gravy or water as needed.
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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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,695 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Coats the cutlets, helping form a light crust and thicken the juices.
The step that matters
Simmer gently in a single layer. A very gentle heat cooks the mutton through slowly and keeps the flour coating from scorching or breaking apart. If the liquid runs low, the cutlets can dry out or stick, so checking moisture during the long simmer matters.
“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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