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Oxford John

A dish of mutton collops served in a gravy of butter, ketchup, mushroom powder, and lemon pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Oxford John

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the collops

  1. Cut the leg of mutton into collops.

  2. Rub the collops with eggs.

  3. Sprinkle chopped shallots, breadcrumbs, parsley, anchovy, nutmeg, pepper, and salt over the collops.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Heat boiling butter in a pan and fry the collops until light brown.

  2. Keep the collops hot while preparing the gravy.

  3. In a saucepan, combine gravy, lemon pickle, mushroom powder, ketchup, and butter.

  4. Let the mixture boil for a few minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the collops to the gravy and simmer for a while.

  2. Serve the collops garnished with morels and pickles.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main meat, which is cut into collops and browned for substance.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the seasonings and breadcrumbs adhere to the meat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crust on the collops that helps them brown when fried.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury aroma that builds flavour in the coating.
Gravy
Provides the liquid base of the sauce in which the collops simmer.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that season the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the collops until light brown. Browning through the hot butter creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. Cooking too pale loses flavour, while overcooking dries the meat and toughens the coating.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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