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Mutton Kebobbed

A roasted mutton loin kebab seasoned with nutmeg, breadcrumbs, herbs, and egg yolks, basted with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper 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

  1. Trim all fat and skin from the mutton loin and cut it into steaks.

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

  3. Dip the steaks in the egg yolks, then sprinkle the mixture over them.

  4. Reassemble the steaks as they were, tie them together, and secure on a small spit.

Roast and baste

  1. Roast over a hot fire, placing a dish underneath to catch drippings.

  2. Baste with butter and the juices that collect during roasting.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Provides the meat that becomes the kebab, cooked through over direct heat.
Egg yolks
Bind the crumb coating to the steaks and help it brown during roasting.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crust over the meat that absorbs drippings and crisps as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown when basted.

The step that matters

Roast over a hot fire. Too little heat leaves the meat grey and the coating soggy, while too much burns the breadcrumbs before the mutton is cooked through. Basting with drippings keeps the surface moist and browning evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

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