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Shoulder of Mutton Cutlets

Thin slices of mutton cooked in butter and served with beef tea or thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shoulder of Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut two thin slices from the lean undercut of the mutton.

  2. Sprinkle the slices lightly with coarse sea salt and black pepper if desired.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the butter in a small frying pan until hot.

  2. Add the mutton slices and cook slowly, turning frequently until done.

  3. Transfer the cutlets to a hot plate and pour over beef tea or thickened gravy.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 and supplies the meaty flavour as it cooks.
Butter
Conducts heat into the slices and adds richness and browning to the surface.
Beef tea or thickened gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the finished cutlets.

The step that matters

Cook slowly, turning frequently until done. Cooking over gentle heat and turning often lets the inside cook through before the outside over-browns or dries. Keeping the butter hot but not smoking helps the surface brown evenly.

“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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