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Mutton Cutlets, with Herbs

Mutton cutlets coated in herbs, breadcrumbs, and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets, with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the mutton cutlets neatly.

  2. Sauté the chopped onions, mushrooms, and parsley in a pan.

  3. Pour the mixture over the cutlets and season with salt and pepper.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the cutlets in a sauté pan with butter until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with herb or cucumber sauce.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  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 cutlets
Form the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp outer layer that browns during frying.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and browns the coating, adding richness and flavor.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat in butter lets the breadcrumb coating brown and crisp while the meat cooks through. Too high a heat burns the coating before the inside is done, while too low a heat leaves it soggy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, mushroom, parsley, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, mushroom, parsley, pepper, egg, 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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