Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Cutlets a LA Duchesse

Mutton cutlets served with a thick white sauce and herbs, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a LA Duchesse

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Stew the mutton cutlets in stock with a bouquet of herbs until tender.

  2. Remove the cutlets, skim the stock, and strain it. Reduce the stock in a small saucepan until it becomes a glaze.

  3. Dip each cutlet in the glaze and set aside.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine the thick white sauce and egg yolks, heating until just below boiling.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, chopped onions, and pounded mushrooms to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and mix well.

  3. Roll each cutlet in the sauce mixture, adding cream or mushroom liquid if too stiff.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cutlets in a fire-proof dish, cover with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets
Provide the meat that is cooked tender in stock and then coated and baked.
Egg yolks
Bind the thick white sauce so the filling holds together and sets when baked.
Thick white sauce
Forms a creamy base that keeps the filling moist and coats each cutlet.
Onions
Add savoury body and flavour to the filling once parboiled and finely chopped.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling when pounded.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Reducing the stock to a glaze. If the stock is reduced too little, the cutlets stay thin and watery; reducing it fully concentrates gelatin and flavour so the glaze clings and seals the meat before the filling is added.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, egg, parsley, mushroom, pepper, bread. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes