Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Kehobbed

Roasted mutton loin seasoned with nutmeg, herbs, and breadcrumbs, served with a ketchup‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Kehobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove all fat and skin from the loin of mutton and joint it at every bone.

  2. Mix grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and herbs in a bowl.

  3. Dip the mutton steaks into the egg yolks and sprinkle the seasoning mixture over them.

  4. Reassemble the steaks and tie them together securely.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton on a spit over a hot fire, basting with butter and the meat juices.

  2. Prepare ½ cup of gravy and mix in 2 tablespoons of ketchup and 1 teaspoon of flour; bring to a boil.

  3. Serve the mutton with the gravy poured over it.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Forms the main meat, which turns tender and juicy when roasted slowly over heat.
Egg yolks
Bind the breadcrumb seasoning to the meat so it adheres during roasting.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crust that absorbs fat and juices and browns during roasting.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich surface flavour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it comes to a boil.

The step that matters

Roast over a hot fire while basting. Basting with butter and meat juices keeps the surface from drying out and helps it brown. Too little heat or basting can leave the meat dry and pale, while a properly hot fire sears the coating into a golden crust.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, egg, butter, ketchup, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, egg, butter, ketchup, flour. 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipesCurried MuttonCurried Mutton9 recipes