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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets are seasoned mutton chops cooked in butter and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Purchase a piece of the best end of a neck of mutton.

  2. Divide and trim the chops at home.

  3. Season the chops with coarse sea salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Cook the chops until browned on both sides.

  3. Serve with tomato sauce if desired.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Best end of neck of mutton
Provides the meat itself, which is cooked into the chops and gives the dish its main flavour and texture.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and promotes browning on the chop surfaces, adding richness.

The step that matters

Cook the chops until browned on both sides. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction on the surface, which needs a hot, dry pan surface. Crowding the pan or cooking over too low heat steams the meat instead, leaving it grey and less flavourful.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, sauce. 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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