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 Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton
Cut the back end of a neck of mutton into steaks and chop each bone short.
Brush the steaks with egg and coat them with bread crumbs, herbs, and seasoning.
Cook and serve
Mash the potatoes with butter and cream.
Fry the steaks and arrange them around the mashed potatoes in the center of the dish.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Neck of mutton
- Forms the main meat portion, providing the savory flavor of the cutlets.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the steaks during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp coating that browns when fried.
- Potatoes
- Provide the starchy base of the mashed potatoes served beside the steaks.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the mashed potatoes.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and smoothness to the mashed potatoes.
The step that matters
Fry the steaks. The steaks need enough heat to brown the egg and crumb coating before the meat overcooks. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and greasy, while too much browns it before the mutton cooks through.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, bread, pepper, butter, cream):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Spinachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, bread, pepper, butter, cream. 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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