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Mutton Cutlets a LA Minute

Mutton cutlets a la minute are thinly sliced mutton seasoned, fried quickly, and served with a mushroom and herb gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a LA Minute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Slice the mutton cutlets thinly and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Fry the cutlets quickly over high heat until crisp, turning often.

  3. Keep the cutlets warm in the oven while preparing the gravy.

Make the gravy

  1. In a pan, stew the chopped mushrooms, shallot, parsley, and thyme in butter for a few minutes.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, then add flour and water.

  3. Strain the gravy and serve it around the cutlets.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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 and crisps when fried quickly over high heat.
Butter
Carries the herbs and mushrooms in the pan and adds richness and browning flavour to the gravy.
Mushrooms
Release moisture while stewing, adding savoury depth to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it combines with the butter and liquid.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets quickly over high heat until crisp. Searing over high heat browns the surface quickly through the Maillard reaction, creating crispness and flavour before the thin slices overcook and dry out.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, mushroom, shallot, thyme, flour):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, mushroom, shallot, thyme, flour. 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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