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Mutton Recha Uffe

Breaded mutton slices fried in fat, served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Recha Uffe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Slice the cold mutton.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in butter until pale yellow.

  3. Stir in flour and ½ cup boiling water until the sauce thickens.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Beat in the egg yolk.

Coat the mutton

  1. Oil the bottom of a shallow dish.

  2. Spread the sauce on both sides of the mutton slices, placing the first side down in the dish.

  3. Beat the egg with the cold water.

  4. Dust the table with sifted bread crumbs.

  5. Dip the mutton slices in the bread crumbs, then in the beaten egg, and finally in the crumbs again.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the breaded mutton slices in hot fat until golden brown. Drain on brown paper and serve garnished with parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cold mutton
Forms the main body of the cutlet and gives it its meaty flavour and chew.
Flour
Thickens the onion sauce so it clings to the mutton slices.
Egg
Binds the sauce and the crumbs to the meat so the coating stays in place.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the sauce as it softens and turns pale.
Lard
Conducts heat to fry the coating, helping it brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Frying the breaded slices in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating soaks up grease and turns soggy before it browns. Hot fat sets the crumb crust quickly, so the inside stays moist and the outside turns crisp and golden.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, bread, flour, pepper, egg. 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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