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Mutton Cutlets

Fried mutton cutlets coated in butter, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim the mutton cutlets into neat shapes, leaving about 1.5 inches of bone projecting beyond the meat.

  2. Scrape the bone free from any skin or fat.

  3. Brush the cutlets with warmed butter and sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt, keeping the bone clean.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the cutlets into the beaten egg, then coat them well with the bread crumbs.

  2. Heat plenty of boiling fat in a stewpan.

  3. If using a frying basket, place the cutlets in it and plunge them into the fat.

  4. Cook for about 7 minutes until they are golden brown.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets
Provide the meat that is trimmed, cooked and served as the main dish.
Whole egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the cutlets so the coating adheres during frying.
White bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Warmed butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface before the coating is applied.

The step that matters

Coat and fry in hot fat. The fat must be fully boiling when the cutlets go in. Hot fat sets the egg and crumb coating quickly, so it crisps and browns rather than soaking up oil and turning greasy.

“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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