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Mutton Kebobbed

Mutton kebabs made from a boneless loin, seasoned with nutmeg, breadcrumbs, herbs, and served with a ketchup‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Kebobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove all fat and skin from the loin of mutton.

  2. Joint the meat at every bone.

Season and assemble

  1. Mix grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and herbs.

  2. Dip the steaks in egg yolks and sprinkle the seasoning mixture over them.

  3. Reassemble the steaks, tie them together, and secure on a small spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast over a hot fire, basting with butter and meat juices.

  2. Prepare gravy by boiling it with ketchup and flour, then pour over the mutton before serving.

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 body of the dish, cooking to a tender, juicy meat.
Egg yolks
Bind the seasoning mixture to the meat and help it brown during roasting.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and add a light crust that holds the seasoning on the surface.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the roasting meat.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the mutton rather than running off.

The step that matters

Roast over a hot fire, basting with butter and meat juices. Basting keeps the surface moist while the sugars and proteins brown, building flavour. Too little basting, or heat that is too low, can leave the meat dry and pale.

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.

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