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Mutton Collops

Mutton collops are thin slices of mutton loin seasoned with salt, pepper, mace, parsley, thyme, shallots, and cooked in butter with gravy and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut thin collops from the part of the loin next to the leg and remove the sinews.

  2. Season the collops with salt, pepper, and mace, then sprinkle with parsley, thyme, and shallots.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the collops in butter until half cooked.

  2. Add gravy, lemon juice, and butter mixed with flour, then simmer gently for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately to prevent the collops from becoming hard.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Provides the meat itself, which is cut into thin slices and cooked quickly.
Butter
Fat for frying that carries flavour and helps the collops brown.
Butter rubbed in flour
Acts as a roux that thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour that forms the sauce.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like aroma that seasons the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the meat and butter.

The step that matters

Serve immediately after simmering. Meat proteins tighten and toughen as they cool, so the collops become hard if they sit. Serving them straight from the pan keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, lemon. 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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