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Mutton Kebobbed

Mutton Kebobbed is a roasted mutton dish seasoned with nutmeg, herbs, and breadcrumbs, served with a ketchup-floured gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 Kebobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

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

  2. Joint the mutton at every bone.

  3. Mix grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and herbs in a bowl.

  4. Dip the mutton steaks into the egg yolks.

  5. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the steaks.

  6. Reassemble the steaks.

  7. Tie them together.

  8. Secure them on a small spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton over a hot fire.

  2. Baste with butter and the meat's juices.

  3. Place the mutton in a dish.

  4. Prepare the gravy.

  5. Combine the gravy with ketchup.

  6. Rub in the flour.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Skim off excess fat from the gravy.

  9. Pour it over the mutton.

  10. Keep the meat hot until 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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, cooked as steaks and roasted until tender.
Egg yolks
Bind the seasoning mixture to the mutton steaks so it adheres during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the egg and juices and form a seasoned crust on the meat.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the surface while basting.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the egg-coated steaks on the spit over the fire. Egg yolk sets when heated and holds the crumb coating in place; if the fire is too fierce the coating can scorch before the mutton cooks through, so basting regularly helps moisture and color develop evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, bread, 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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