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Mutton Cutlets a LA Soubise

Mutton cutlets served with a creamy onion sauce and demi-glace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a LA Soubise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim the mutton cutlets and fry them in the butter until browned.

  2. Drain the cutlets lightly and place them on a potato border.

Make the Soubise garnish

  1. For the Soubise Garnish, cook the onion in milk and strain it through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix the strained onion with the Bechamel sauce, season with pepper and salt, and add the cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pile the onion mixture in the center of the cutlets and pour the demi-glace sauce around.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 cutlets
Provide the main meat, which browns in butter for flavour and a crisp exterior.
Butter
Browns the cutlets and adds rich flavour to the surface.
Spanish onion puree
Gives the Soubise garnish its sweet, mellow flavour and smooth body.
Bechamel sauce
Thickens the onion puree into a creamy, spoonable garnish.
Demi-glace sauce
Adds deep, savoury meatiness to the dish around the cutlets.

The step that matters

Browning the cutlets in butter. Frying over sufficient heat until browned creates Maillard flavour and colour on the surface. Crowding the pan or under-heating steams the meat grey instead.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper, sauce, cream):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, sauce, cream. 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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