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Mutton Cutlets, a LA Maintenon

Mutton cutlets seasoned, sautéed, simmered in brown sauce, wrapped in paper, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets, a LA Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the mutton cutlets with salt and pepper.

  2. Add chopped mushrooms, parsley, and shallots.

  3. Fry the cutlets until brown on both sides.

  4. Pour off excess grease.

  5. Add brown sauce, nutmeg, and lemon juice.

  6. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  7. Cool the cutlets in the larder.

Wrap in paper

  1. Cut note-paper into heart shapes.

  2. Oil the paper.

  3. Place a cutlet and some sauce in each paper, twist the edges tightly.

  4. Mark the papers with a heated skewer to resemble broiled cutlets.

Bake and serve

  1. Warm the cutlets in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  2. Serve on a napkin with fine parsley and brown sauce on the side.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 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 cutlets
Provide the main meat, which browns in the pan and holds its juices when cooked in paper.
Shallots
Add savoury, mildly sweet aromatic flavour to the sauce as they soften.
Mushrooms
Add earthy, savoury depth and moisture to the sauce.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and rich savoury flavour that keeps the cutlets juicy inside the paper.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Twist the paper edges tightly. A tight seal traps steam and sauce around the cutlet, so it cooks gently in its own juices. A loose seal lets moisture escape and the meat dries out in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, mushroom, parsley, shallot, sauce, lemon. 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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