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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets simmered in wine, mushrooms, onions, and spices, finished with burnt sugar and red wine garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim the cutlets.

  2. Arrange them in a circular order in a pan with clarified butter.

  3. Fry quickly to brown both sides.

  4. Before fully cooked, pour off the grease.

Make the sauce and simmer

  1. Add red wine, prepared mushrooms, and simmered small onions.

  2. Season with mignonette pepper, salt, nutmeg, and pounded sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture for 2 minutes.

  4. Add burnt sugar.

  5. Let the cutlets simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

Garnish and serve

  1. Dish up the cutlets closely in a circle.

  2. Add red wine for garnish.

  3. Boil for 1 minute.

  4. Garnish the center with mushrooms.

  5. Pour the sauce over the cutlets.

  6. Serve.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 cutlets
The main protein, which browns on the outside and becomes tender during slow simmering.
Clarified butter
Fat for frying that browns the cutlets evenly without burning as quickly as whole butter.
Red wine
Liquid that forms the sauce, adding acidity and depth as it reduces and flavours the meat.
Burnt sugar
Adds deep brown colour and a slightly bitter caramel flavour to the sauce.
Small onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Pour off the grease before the cutlets are fully cooked. Excess fat left in the pan would keep frying the meat and make the sauce greasy. Removing it while the cutlets are still browning keeps the sauce clean and glossy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, red wine, mushroom, onion, pepper, sugar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, red wine, mushroom, onion, pepper, sugar. 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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