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Mutton Cutlets with Tomato Puree

Mutton cutlets served with a tomato puree sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets with Tomato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim the cutlets and remove the chine bone.

  2. Shape the cutlets, dip them in dissolved butter, brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry the cutlets in boiling fat, turning frequently until cooked.

  2. Drain the cutlets on blotting paper before the fire.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Break open the tomatoes, remove the seeds, and place them in a stewpan with onion or shallots, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook over low heat until pulped, then strain through a sieve.

  3. Return the pulp to the stewpan, add butter mixed with flour, and stir in meat glaze.

Serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets in a circle, overlapping slightly, and fill the center with the tomato puree.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the cutlets when fried.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumbs to the cutlets so the coating holds during frying.
Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the sauce once pulped.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour; mixed with flour it thickens the sauce.
Meat glaze
Adds concentrated meaty savour and depth to the tomato sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in boiling fat, turning frequently until cooked. The coating needs hot fat to set and brown quickly; if the fat is not hot enough, the breadcrumbs absorb oil and turn greasy and pale. Frequent turning promotes even browning and cooking.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, onion, pepper, meat, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, onion, pepper, meat, flour. 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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