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Fried Mutton-chops

Fried mutton chops coated in cracker crumbs and served with macaroni and fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fried Mutton-chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Crack the crackers into fine crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Dip each mutton chop in the egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the chops in hot lard until golden brown.

  3. Serve on a bed of macaroni with slices of fried bread for a decorative presentation.

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. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the chops so the coating holds during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating around the chops.
Mutton chops
Serve as the main protein that the coating and frying are built around.

The step that matters

Frying the chops in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy and soft instead of crisp and golden. Hot fat sets the crumb crust quickly, which keeps the coating attached and the chop juicy inside.

“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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