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Larded Mutton Chops

Larded Mutton Chops are mutton chops coated with pork fat, simmered in gravy with tomato ketchup and optional peas and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Larded Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the mutton chops.

  2. Lard the chops thickly with strips of fat pork.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and mace.

Braise

  1. Place in a saucepan and cover with yesterday's soup or gravy and a spoonful of tomato ketchup.

  2. If available, add leftover green peas and minced onion.

  3. Cover and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Turn the chops and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

  5. Remove the chops and keep warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy and thicken it with browned flour and a tablespoon of chopped cucumber pickle; boil for 2 minutes.

  2. Return the chops to the gravy and simmer for 3 minutes.

  3. Serve the chops on a hot dish and cover with the gravy.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Fat pork strips
Add fat that bastes the lean mutton and keeps it moist as it cooks.
Yesterday's soup or gravy
Forms the cooking liquid and body of the sauce, adding savoury flavour.
Browned flour
Thickens the strained gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that rounds out the savoury gravy.

The step that matters

Cook slowly with the lid on. Gentle, covered simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton slowly. Boiling hard toughens the meat and can dry the surface, so keep the heat low.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, pepper, mace, tomato, ketchup, onion):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peasthe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, pepper, mace, tomato, ketchup, onion. 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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