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Mutton Kebobb'd

A roasted mutton kebab 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.

Roast and serve

  1. Skewer the pieces and roast them, basting continuously with fresh butter.

  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
Is the main meat, cooked whole in pieces so it stays juicy on the skewer.
Egg yolk
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs and parsley adhere to the meat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the meat as it roasts.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the surface.

The step that matters

Basting the meat with butter while it roasts. Butter kept on the surface during roasting helps the crumb coating brown evenly and keeps the outside from drying out before the inside is cooked through.

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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