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Mutton Cutlets a LA Maintenon

Mutton cutlets coated in herbs and breadcrumbs, baked and served with poivrade sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the underscored bone from the loin of mutton and cut it into chops.

  2. Beat and trim the chops neatly.

Season and cook

  1. Mix butter, parsley, thyme, shallots, pepper, salt, mace, and lemon juice; add to the chops.

  2. Cook the chops until nearly done, then place them on a dish and pour the cooking liquid over them.

Coat and broil

  1. When nearly cool, coat the chops in breadcrumbs and wrap them in oiled white paper.

  2. Broil the wrapped chops over a slow fire.

  3. Serve with hot poivrade sauce in a boat.

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

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 dish, providing the meat that the chops are cut from.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the herbs and seasoning and keeping the meat moist.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury aroma and depth of flavour to the seasoning.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and butter.
Breadcrumbs
Form a coating that browns and crisps on the outside during broiling.

The step that matters

Cook the chops until nearly done. Meat keeps cooking after it leaves the heat and the broiling stage adds more. Stopping early avoids overcooking, which would toughen the proteins and dry the chops.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, parsley, thyme, shallot, pepper, 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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