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Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Mutton cutlets wrapped in paper and broiled, served with sauce Robart or gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the mutton chops and half fry them with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Wrap and broil

  1. Lay a piece of force-meat on white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper, leaving a hole for the bone ends.

  2. Broil the wrapped chops over a gentle fire.

Serve

  1. Serve with sauce Robart or a little gravy.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy when cooked gently.
Shallot or onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness as it softens in the frying.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the meat.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the cutlets brown and carries flavour during broiling.

The step that matters

Broiling over a gentle fire. Gentle, steady heat lets the fat and connective tissue in the mutton render slowly, so the meat cooks through and stays moist. Strong, fierce heat would scorch the outside before the centre is tender.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, pepper, meat, 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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