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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets are seasoned loin chops coated with parsley, thyme, egg yolk, bread crumbs, and cayenne pepper, then broiled and served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the vertebrae and about 1 inch from the top of each bone of the loin chops.

  2. Melt a little butter in a stewpan and season the butter with coarse sea salt.

  3. Add the chops and stew them briefly without browning.

  4. Let the chops cool.

Coat and cook

  1. Mix parsley, thyme, and enough egg yolk to coat the chops.

  2. Sprinkle the coated chops with bread crumbs mixed with a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  3. Broil the chops on a gridiron over a clear, moderate fire until browned.

  4. Serve with lemon juice squeezed over them or garnish with thin slices of lemon.

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

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Loin chops
Provide the meat, which is cooked gently first and then finished over direct heat.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder that helps the herbs and crumbs adhere to the chops.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the chops.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavour and a tender texture during the initial stew.

The step that matters

Stewing without browning. Stewing the chops briefly in seasoned butter without browning cooks them gently and keeps the meat moist. Browning is saved for the final broil, so the chops do not dry out or overcook before the coating is set.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, egg, bread, pepper, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, egg, bread, pepper, 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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