Name: Mutton, Breast Of, Boiled
Ingredients: 1 breast of mutton; 1 cup bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons minced savory herbs; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 egg

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton, Breast Of, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the bones, gristle, and excess fat from the mutton breast.
Flatten the joint on a clean surface.
Spread a thin layer of forcemeat made from bread crumbs, herbs, parsley, pepper, salt, and the egg on the surface. Avoid spreading the forcemeat too close to the edges.
Roll the breast tightly and tie securely to hold the forcemeat in place.

Cook and serve

Gently boil for 2 hours.
Serve hot, smothered with caper sauce.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 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

Egg: Binds the forcemeat so it holds together inside the rolled joint.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a soft, light texture.
Mutton breast: Fatty meat that becomes tender and juicy during long, gentle cooking.

The step that matters

Roll and tie the breast tightly. A loose roll lets the forcemeat escape or spread unevenly during boiling, and gaps let liquid in and leave the filling dry or patchy. Keeping the forcemeat away from the edges prevents it from squeezing out when the joint is rolled.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

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Mutton, Breast Of, Boiled