Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓
Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the back end of a neck of mutton into neat pieces and shorten each bone.
Brush the mutton pieces with egg and cover them with bread crumbs.
Mash the potatoes with a little butter and cream.
Cook and serve
Fry the cutlets until golden brown.
Arrange the cutlets around the mashed potatoes piled in the middle of the dish.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Neck of mutton
- Provides the meat for the cutlets, which cook tender and juicy when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the meat so the coating stays on during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
- Potatoes
- Make a soft, starchy base that holds the mashed potato shape on the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the mashed potatoes a smooth texture.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, making the mashed potatoes smoother and creamier.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the bread crumb coating before the meat overcooks. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and greasy, while too much burns it before the mutton is cooked through.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, bread, butter, cream):
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, bread, butter, cream. 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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