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Mutton Steaks, French

Mutton steaks served with a gravy made from bones and trimmings, thickened with browned butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Steaks, French

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton and gravy

  1. Cut steaks from the neck.

  2. Trim the bones for gravy.

  3. Place the steaks in a stewpan.

  4. Cover with water.

  5. Add onions and herbs.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Remove the steaks to drain.

  8. Add the trimmings and bones to the cooking liquid.

  9. Boil for 1 hour.

  10. Strain the gravy.

  11. Let it cool.

  12. Remove the fat.

Finish the gravy

  1. Thicken the gravy with browned butter and flour.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the steaks in egg, bread-crumbs, and minced herbs.

  2. Fry the steaks for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve the steaks on a hot deep dish.

  4. Pour the gravy over them.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 steaks
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through the initial simmering.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread-crumbs and herbs stick to the steaks.
Bread-crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when the steaks are fried.
Browned butter
Adds a nutty, rich aroma and fat that help thicken and flavour the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the browned butter.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the cooking liquid that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Dip the steaks in egg, bread-crumbs, and minced herbs.. The egg must coat the steaks evenly so the crumbs adhere; bare patches can fall off or scorch during frying, leaving the crust uneven.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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