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Mutton Chops a LA Magny

Mutton chops topped with tomato and mushroom, baked with butter, stock, and parsley.

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 a LA Magny

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim each mutton chop.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Brush both sides with melted butter.

  4. Place one slice of tomato and one mushroom on top of each chop.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of consomme or stock and a little coarsely chopped parsley.

Bake

  1. Put the chops in a buttered bag, fold, and fasten it.

  2. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 16 minutes.

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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly and stays tender in the sealed bag.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the chops brown lightly and stay juicy.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savoury flavour into the bag as they cook.
Consomme or stock
Adds liquid that steams the chops and carries flavour through the bag.

The step that matters

Fasten the bag tightly before baking. A well-sealed bag traps steam so the chops cook gently in their own juices. If the bag leaks, the steam escapes, the liquid evaporates, and the meat can dry out.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, mushroom, 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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