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Mutton Breast Collared

A boiled mutton breast rolled with a forcemeat of breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon thyme, anchovy, and seasoned, served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Breast Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones and gristles from the mutton.

  2. Make a forcemeat with bread crumbs, parsley, lemon thyme, and minced anchovy.

  3. Season the forcemeat with salt and pepper.

  4. Spread the forcemeat over the mutton, roll it tightly, and tie it with string.

Cook the mutton

  1. Place the rolled mutton in boiling water.

Make the gravy

  1. Prepare gravy using the bones, onions, parsley, lemon thyme, salt, and pepper.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour.

  4. Add vinegar and mushroom ketchup to the gravy.

Serve

  1. Garnish with cut lemon or pickles.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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 breast
Forms the main body of the dish, wrapped around the forcemeat as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the forcemeat so it holds its shape when rolled.
Anchovy
Adds a savory, salty depth to the forcemeat without a fishy taste.
Butter and flour
Together thicken the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that brightens the rich gravy and balances its fattiness.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savory, umami flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked in the fat and stirred well, or it forms lumps and tastes raw. Cooking it briefly gives a smooth gravy with a clean, toasty flavor.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, parsley, lemon, anchovy, 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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