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Scalloped Mutton

A baked mutton dish with gravy and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

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 the mutton

  1. Chop the mutton coarsely and mix with salt and pepper.

Make the gravy

  1. In a pan, heat the butter and stir in the flour until browned.

  2. Add the water to the browned mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the mutton and gravy, using three layers of gravy and two layers of mutton, finishing with gravy on top.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  3. This dish can be prepared the day before and stored in a cool place.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat that forms the body and savoury flavour of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the butter and water into a gravy, and browning adds a nutty flavour.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the gravy.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter. Cooking the flour in fat until golden develops a nutty flavour and removes raw starch taste. Stir constantly so it does not scorch, then add the water before the gravy thickens unevenly.

“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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