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Cutlets in Aspic a LA Princesse

Mutton cutlets braised in stock, coated with chaudfroid sauce and aspic, served on salad with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cutlets in Aspic a LA Princesse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Remove the chine bone from the mutton cutlets.

  2. Fry the cutlets in butter until browned.

  3. Place the cutlets on a bed of braised carrots and turnips.

  4. Add stock and cover with buttered paper.

  5. Braise gently for 1½ hours.

  6. Press the cutlets between two plates until cold.

  7. Trim the mutton into individual cutlets.

Decorate and glaze

  1. Mask each cutlet with chaudfroid sauce.

  2. Decorate with cut chili pod, gherkin, and truffle.

  3. Pour liquid aspic over each cutlet.

Serve

  1. Once set, serve on a bed of salad sprinkled with mayonnaise.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + truffletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle braising.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour during the gentle braise.
Butter
Browns the cutlets when fried, adding colour and rich flavour.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear glaze that gives the cutlets a smooth, glossy coating.
White chaudfroid sauce
Coats each cutlet with a smooth base that holds the decorations and aspic.

The step that matters

Press the cutlets until cold. Pressing while cooling flattens and firms the meat so the cutlets keep a neat shape and an even surface for the chaudfroid and aspic.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, sauce, butter, truffle):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, sauce, butter, truffle. 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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