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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried, served with sauce and macedoine of vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,013 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Ensure the mutton is well hung.

  2. Cut the rib bones to about 3 inches and remove the chine bone.

  3. Trim into neat small cutlets and scrape the bones clean.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat the cutlets with beaten egg and then with bread crumbs.

  2. Heat the clarified fat until smoking hot and fry the cutlets for 7 to 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the cutlets thoroughly.

Serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets on a border of potato, pour the sauce around, and garnish with the macedoine of vegetables.

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. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the meat while it fries.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the crumbs stick evenly to the cutlets.
Clarified fat
Conducts high heat for frying and browns the coating without burning as quickly as butter.
Espagnole or tomato sauce
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the plated cutlets.

The step that matters

Heat the clarified fat until smoking hot. If the fat is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Very hot fat sears the coating quickly, sealing it so the cutlet cooks through with a crisp exterior.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, egg. 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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