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Mutton Toast

A stew of mutton simmered in water, thickened with flour and enriched with cream or butter, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton and cold water in a pot and cook slowly until the meat is tender.

  2. Strain the broth through a sieve, let it cool, and remove the grease from the top.

Thicken and serve

  1. Bring the broth to a boil and add flour to thicken, along with a little cream or butter.

  2. Toast the bread slices and dip them in hot water to soften.

  3. Pour the stew over the softened bread and add the pieces of mutton.

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. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  2. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Mutton + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together550 recipes

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

  4. Cream + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

  5. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
Provides the meat and flavour for the broth that the dish is built on.
Flour
Thickens the hot broth so it coats the bread instead of running off.
Cream or butter
Adds richness and a smoother, fattier mouthfeel to the thickened broth.
Bread
Soaks up the thickened broth, giving the dish its base and soft texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the broth before serving. Flour must be heated in the boiling broth to thicken it properly; if it is not brought to a boil and stirred, the sauce stays thin and can taste floury.

“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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