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Fried Mutton Chops

Fried mutton chops baked with gravy, mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Fried Mutton Chops

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the mutton chops.

  2. Dip the trimmed chops in flour.

  3. Fry the chops in a frying pan with butter or dripping until lightly browned.

  4. Place the fried chops in a pie dish.

  5. Cover the pie dish with stock or water.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, turning occasionally.

  2. Twenty minutes before serving, dip the chops in flour again.

  3. Fry the chops gently until cooked, about 15 minutes.

  4. Drain the chops.

  5. Arrange the drained chops on a dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Mix 2 teaspoons of flour with ½ cup of gravy from the dish.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pan.

  3. Stir until it boils and thickens.

  4. Add a little mushroom ketchup.

  5. Add pepper.

  6. Add salt.

  7. Add a few drops of browning.

  8. Strain the sauce over the chops.

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

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

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

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

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 chops
The main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow baking in liquid.
Flour
Coats the chops so they brown evenly and helps thicken the sauce.
Butter or dripping
Fat for frying that gives the chops browning and a rich flavour.
Gravy
Adds meaty savoury body to the sauce once thickened with flour.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Baking the chops covered in liquid. Two hours of gentle heat in liquid breaks down tough connective tissue in mutton. Baking too hot or too briefly leaves the meat tough and dry.

“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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