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Epigrams of Mutton

A mutton dish served in a gravy thickened with flour, seasoned with red currant jelly, mushroom ketchup or Harvey sauce, sherry, and coated with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Epigrams of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, thicken the gravy with flour mixed with a little stock.

  2. Add red currant jelly, mushroom ketchup or Harvey sauce, and sherry.

  3. Make the sauce a rich brown color with browning or liquid carmine if desired.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Once the mutton is cold and set, use a round cutter to cut the meat into rounds.

  2. Dip each round into beaten egg, then coat with white bread crumbs.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Red currant + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together84 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Red currant + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Red currant + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy
Forms the base of the sauce, carrying the savoury meaty flavour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tang that balances the rich gravy.
Egg
Binds the mutton rounds so the bread crumbs adhere to them.
White bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the mutton rounds.

The step that matters

Let the mutton get cold and set before cutting. Cold, set meat holds its shape under the cutter and keeps its juices in, so the rounds stay neat and do not crumble or dry out.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, mushroom, sherry, egg, bread. 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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