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Mutton Kebobb’d

A roasted mutton kebob seasoned with egg yolk, breadcrumbs, parsley, butter, and served with brown gravy and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Kebobb’d

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the loin of mutton into four pieces and remove the skin.

  2. Rub the pieces with the yolk of an egg.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and shredded parsley.

  4. Turn the pieces around and skewer them.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast while basting with fresh butter to create froth.

  2. Once cooked, place a little brown gravy underneath and serve garnished with pickles.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through over direct heat.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs and parsley adhere to the meat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust that helps the surface brown and crisp as it roasts.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and moisture during basting, helping the surface brown and froth.

The step that matters

Basting with fresh butter during roasting. Butter that is spooned over the meat as it roasts adds fat and moisture to the surface, promoting browning. Letting the meat dry out or stopping the basting early leaves the crust pale and dry.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits less well

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