Name: Mutton, Breast Of, to Collar
Ingredients: 1 breast of mutton, skin removed; 1 large cup of bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1/2 teaspoon pounded mace; 2 cloves, crushed; Zest of 1/2 lemon, finely chopped; 2 anchovies, chopped; 3 or 4 hard-boiled egg yolks; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mutton, Breast Of, to Collar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

Remove the bones and gristle from the mutton breast.
Cover the breast with beaten egg.

Make the stuffing

In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, parsley, mace, crushed cloves, lemon zest, anchovies, and egg yolks.
Pound the mixture in a mortar and season with salt and pepper.

Roll and cook

Spread the forcemeat over the mutton breast, roll it tightly, and tie with kitchen twine.
Place the rolled breast in a pot of boiling water and simmer for 2 hours, or bake for 20 minutes per pound.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,768 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 and carries the stuffing as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind with the egg to give the forcemeat body.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the stuffing into a cohesive mass.
Anchovies: Add savoury depth that enhances the flavour of the meat and stuffing.
Lemon zest: Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Rolling and tying the breast. A tight, even roll keeps the forcemeat from spilling out and helps the breast cook evenly. Loose rolling lets the stuffing escape and creates uneven texture when the meat is simmered or baked.

Swap the mace

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

Marjoramfits better
Thymefits better
Nutmegfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, parsley, clove, lemon, egg, pepper. 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

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Mutton, Breast Of, to Collar