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Mutton Collops

Thinly sliced mutton cooked with shallots, herbs, butter, gravy, and capers, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the shallots, parsley, and savory herbs.

  2. Slice the mutton into thin, equal pieces and sprinkle with herbs, salt, pepper, and mace.

Cook and serve

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter and fry the mutton slices slightly.

  2. Add the gravy and a piece of butter kneaded with flour.

  3. Stir in the chopped capers or lemon juice.

  4. Simmer for a few minutes and serve immediately.

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. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its meaty flavor and texture.
Butter
Fries the slices and adds richness and a rounded, savory flavor.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savory depth that forms the sauce.
Flour
Kneaded into butter to thicken the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and butter.

The step that matters

Add the butter and flour mixture to the gravy. Flour kneaded into butter must be whisked into hot gravy and simmered so the starch hydrates and thickens evenly. Added without stirring, it clumps and leaves a floury, lumpy sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, parsley, mutton, pepper, butter, flour, capers):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, parsley, mutton, pepper, butter, flour, capers. 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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