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Mutton Steaks

Mutton steaks made with chopped mutton, oysters, anchovy essence, onion juice, suet, mace, cayenne, fried in butter, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped mutton, oysters, essence of anchovy, onion juice, salt, beef suet, ground mace, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Mix all ingredients thoroughly and form into small steaks.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a pan.

  2. Fry the steaks quickly until cooked through.

  3. Serve the steaks with tomato sauce poured around them.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the steaks and provides the meaty flavour and chew.
Oysters
Add moisture and a briny, savoury depth that blends into the meat.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the steaks juicy and tender during frying.
Essence of anchovy
Contributes a concentrated savoury, salty depth that enhances the meat flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks quickly until cooked through. Frying over a brisk heat browns the outside while the inside cooks through. Overcooking dries out lean mutton and makes the steaks tough, so timing matters more than a long cook.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, oyster, anchovy, onion, beef, pepper, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, oyster, anchovy, onion, beef, pepper, butter. 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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