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Cold Mutton

Cold mutton served in a sauce of butter, flour, stock, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, spices, pepper, and salt, with pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Cold Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Heat the saucepan over moderate heat until ready to serve, and add bread snippets fried in butter around it; the longer the meat lies in the sauce, the better.

  2. Rub the saucepan with a piece of garlic or shallot; add a piece of butter and some flour, amalgamating as if making melted butter; lengthen the sauce with stock or broth, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, spices, pepper, and salt to taste; strain; lay slices of meat in it. Half an hour before serving, add pickled gherkins sliced or in any shape; when warmed, serve with or without bread snippets; capers may replace gherkins.

Alternative method

  1. Proceed as in either of the above recipes regarding butter, flour, and onions; add mustard, stock, and a wineglass of white or red wine; season with Worcestershire sauce, spices, pepper, and salt; strain; put meat in it; serve with pickles or not. Beef and pork are best warmed this way.

  2. Fry onion slices in butter; when they color, add slices of meat, pepper, salt, and a sprinkling of flour; keep frying until onions are done and meat warmed; add a small quantity of stock, broth, or water, with a filet de vinaigre, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

118Calories
1 gProtein
12 gFat
3 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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. See the original page.

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. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and browns the onions and bread snippets for flavour.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the sauce so it coats the slices of meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the rich meat.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Warming the meat gently in the sauce. Holding the sauce at a gentle heat warms the meat without toughening it. Boiling would firm the proteins and can make the sauce break or turn grainy, so keep it below a simmer.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, pepper, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, pepper, mustard. 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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