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Mutton Chops

Mutton chops coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard, served with a gravy made from the pan drippings and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Dip the mutton chops in the egg, then coat with bread crumbs or pounded crackers.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Heat the lard in a pan and fry the chops until brown.

  2. Remove the chops from the pan to make the gravy.

  3. Toast the bread until very brown and then pound it finely.

  4. Add the toasted bread and vinegar to the pan, then season with pepper and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the chops to the pan, cover with gravy, and heat through.

  2. Pour everything into a dish and serve hot.

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 + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the bread crumbs or crackers so they stick to the chops as a coating.
Bread crumbs or pounded crackers
Form a crisp, browned coating on the chops when fried.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the chops and carries flavour into the pan.
Bread
Toasted and pounded, it thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the gravy and balances the rich fat.

The step that matters

Fry the chops until brown. Browning the coated chops in hot fat creates flavour through the Maillard reaction and a crisp crust. Pale chops lack flavour, and the crust can later turn soggy under the gravy if it was not well set first.

“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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