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Mutton Cutlets in the Portuyuese Way

Mutton cutlets prepared with mutton chops, shallot or onion, bay leaves, pepper, coarse sea salt, force‑meat, wrapped in white paper, broiled, served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuyuese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the mutton chops.

  2. Half fry the chops with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.

  3. Season the chops with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Wrap the chops

  1. Lay a piece of force-meat on white paper.

  2. Place the chop on the force-meat.

  3. Twist the paper, leaving a hole for the bone ends.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil on a gentle fire.

  2. Serve with sauce Kobart 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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Main meat that is partly fried, then gently broiled inside the paper.
Force-meat
Forms a savoury layer around the chop that helps keep it moist while it cooks.
Shallot or onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and flavour as the chops are half fried.

The step that matters

Broil on a gentle fire. Mutton chops can dry out or toughen under high heat. A gentle fire cooks the meat through slowly, and the paper and force-meat help hold in moisture.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, meat, sauce. 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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