Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Collops

Thin slices of mutton seasoned and fried, finished with gravy, lemon, and butter.

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

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut thin collops from the loin of mutton, removing sinews.

  2. Season the collops with salt, pepper, and mace.

  3. Sprinkle with shredded parsley, thyme, and chopped shallots.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry in butter until half-cooked.

  2. Add gravy, lemon juice, and butter mixed with flour.

  3. Simmer gently for 5 minutes and serve immediately.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of mutton
Forms the thin meat slices that cook quickly and carry the main flavour.
Butter rubbed in flour
Thickens the gravy as it simmers, giving the sauce body.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid base of the sauce and keeps the meat moist.
Juice of 1 lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and sauce.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften in the butter.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 5 minutes and serve immediately. Thin collops toughen and dry out quickly when boiled hard, so a gentle simmer keeps the meat tender. The flour-butter mixture thickens the sauce only when heated gently, and the lemon juice can curdle or thin it if overcooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, lemon. 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 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes