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Mutton Patties

Small patties of minced mutton baked in a mashed potato crust, served with a sauce made from the bones and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mutton

  1. To prepare the mutton, remove bones, gristle, and fat.

  2. Simmer bones and gristle in a saucepan with water, parsley, bay leaf, clove, and salt for the sauce.

  3. Mince the mutton finely and mix with grated onion, parsley, mint, salt, and pepper.

  4. Moisten the mixture with hot water and melted butter.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, strain the water from the bones and add any leftover gravy.

  2. Fry chopped onion in butter, then add flour and strained water.

  3. Add parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper pod, and simmer for 15 minutes.

  4. Strain the sauce and serve with the patties.

Assemble and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes, milk, and beaten eggs.

  3. Butter small patty pans and line them with the potato mixture.

  4. Fill the centers with minced mutton, then cover with more mashed potato.

  5. Bake for 25 minutes until golden.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,198 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Forms the soft outer case that holds the filling and bakes to a golden crust.
Eggs
Bind the potato mixture so the cases hold their shape when baked.
Minced mutton
Provides the savoury meat filling that gives the patties their main flavour.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it coats the patties rather than running off.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and gives the sauce its flavour base.

The step that matters

Moisten the mutton filling. Mince dries out easily, so adding hot water and melted butter keeps the filling juicy. Too little liquid leaves it dry, while mixing it thoroughly spreads the moisture evenly.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, egg, butter, mutton, onion, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, egg, butter, mutton, onion, 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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