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Mutton Chops on Papier

Mutton chops wrapped in paper and baked with a creamy egg-cracker mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Chops on Papier

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wipe and trim the chops.

  2. Chop the egg whites very fine and mash the yolks through a sieve.

  3. Mix the chopped egg whites, mashed yolks, rolled crackers, chopped onion, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. If the mixture is too thick, add cream to reach desired consistency.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on each side of the chops.

  2. Wrap the chops in buttered paper and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

  3. Remove the paper, place the chops on a hot platter, and garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Chopped whites and mashed yolks bind the stuffing and add richness and body.
Crackers
Crumbs absorb moisture and butter, giving the coating body and helping it hold to the chops.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the coating brown and moisten as it bakes.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour that pervades the mixture during baking.

The step that matters

Wrapping the chops in buttered paper. The paper traps steam and moisture around the chops, so they cook gently and stay juicy while the coating sets. Leaving the paper unbuttered or open risks drying or sticking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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