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Dainty Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets coated in a mushroom and egg mixture and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dainty Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince and pound the cold chicken with mushrooms, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and egg white.

  2. Trim the cutlets.

Coat the cutlets

  1. Dip the trimmed cutlets in egg white.

  2. Coat the cutlets with the minced mixture on both sides.

  3. Dip the coated cutlets again in egg white.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets in boiling oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve on a napkin, garnished with parsley and mushrooms.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender inside and crisp outside.
Cold chicken
Forms a binding minced layer that adds moisture and richness around the cutlets.
Egg white
Acts as a glue that helps the minced coating and breadcrumbs stick to the cutlets.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury, earthy flavour to the minced coating.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in boiling oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the breadcrumbs absorb oil and turn greasy before the crust sets and the meat cooks through.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, mushroom, chicken, egg, pepper, parsley. 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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