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Mutton Cutlet in the Portuguese Way

A mutton cutlet seasoned with shallot, parsley, bay leaves, pepper, and salt, then broiled and served with Sauce Robert or gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlet in the Portuguese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton chops and half-fry them with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Lay forcemeat on a piece of white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper, leaving a hole for the bone.

  2. Broil on a gentle fire.

  3. Serve with Sauce Robert or a little 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Mutton chops
Provide the main meat that is cooked and served as the cutlet.
Forcemeat
Wraps the chop in a seasoned meat layer that stays moist and holds its shape while cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown during cooking.

The step that matters

Twisting the paper around the chop. The forcemeat must cover the chop evenly and the paper must be twisted snugly so the wrap holds its shape. A loose wrap can let the forcemeat slip off or dry out unevenly under heat.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, 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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