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Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Mutton chops are seasoned, wrapped in paper, and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton chops.

  2. Half-fry them with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Lay forcemeat on a piece of white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper, leaving a hole for the bone ends.

  2. Broil on a gentle fire.

  3. Serve with sauce Robart or a little 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. 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. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
The main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful when half-fried and then broiled.
Forcemeat
Wrapped around the chop, it adds moisture and a savoury, binding coating during cooking.
Sliced shallot or onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the pan.

The step that matters

Broil on a gentle fire. A gentle heat cooks the chop through and sets the forcemeat without burning the paper or drying the meat. Too much heat scorches the outside before the centre is done.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, pepper. 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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