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French Steaks of Neck of Mutton

Stuffed mutton steaks with forcemeat, wrapped in paper, broiled and served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

French Steaks of Neck of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select a good quality neck of mutton and trim most of the fat.

  2. Cut the mutton into 2‑inch thick steaks.

  3. Make a large hole in the center of each steak with a knife.

  4. Prepare forcemeat by mixing bread crumbs, beef suet, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and the yolk of an egg.

  5. Stuff each steak with the forcemeat and wrap them in writing paper.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the wrapped steaks in a Dutch oven and broil them over the fire for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve with a little brown gravy.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Provides the meat and fat that give the steaks their rich, savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb fat and moisture in the forcemeat, giving it a soft, binding texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and richly flavored during cooking.
Egg
Yolk binds the forcemeat so it holds together inside the steak.

The step that matters

Stuffing the steaks. A hole that is too small or stuffing packed too loosely can leave gaps or cause the forcemeat to spill out as it cooks. Packing it snugly keeps it in place and evenly moist.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, bread, beef, egg. 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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