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Mutton Chops Maintenon

Mutton chops coated with a mixture of egg yolk, herbs, grated bread, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, baked in paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Chops Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into chops.

  2. Flatten the chops with a rolling pin.

Make the coating

  1. Mix the boiled yolk of a hard‑boiled egg with chopped herbs, grated bread, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cover the chops with the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Wrap each chop in well‑buttered paper.

  2. Cook over a clear fire, turning often.

  3. Serve in the paper or with browned 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Provides the meat that is cooked into the chops.
Egg yolk
Binds the herb and bread mixture and adds richness to the coating.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the coating a crumbly body.

The step that matters

Turning the chops often over a clear fire. Wrapped in paper, the chops cook through gently, and frequent turning spreads heat evenly so the meat does not scorch on one side before the centre is done.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

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