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 Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Prepare the mutton by trimming it and cutting it into cutlets.
Beat each cutlet to about ½ inch thick using a wet cutlet bat.
Trim the cutlets, leaving about ½ inch of the rib bone bare.
Rub bread crumbs through a sieve onto a piece of paper.
Beat the egg in a plate.
Season the cutlets with salt and pepper.
Coat the cutlets
Dip each cutlet in the egg, ensuring they are well coated.
Cover the cutlets with bread crumbs, lifting them by the bone to avoid touching the crumbs too much.
Cook
In a sauté pan, melt 1 ounce of clarified butter or lard.
Place the cutlets in the pan with the bones facing the center.
Pour 2 more ounces of melted clarified butter over the cutlets.
Cook on a very high heat for about 7 minutes, turning the cutlets as needed.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Provides the meat that forms the cutlets, with its rich flavour and tender texture when cooked quickly.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the hot fat and protects the meat.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder that helps the bread crumbs stick to the cutlets.
- Clarified butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Cook on a very high heat. A very hot pan sets the egg and crumb coating quickly and browns it before the thin cutlets dry out. Turning as needed keeps the crust even and the meat juicy.
“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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