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Mutton Steaks

Mutton steaks grilled, buttered, topped with shallot water, ketchup, horseradish, and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and excess fat from the mutton steaks.

Grill

  1. Heat a grill and place the steaks on it, turning them frequently.

  2. Ensure the fat does not smoke by positioning the grill at an angle.

  3. Once cooked, place the steaks on a hot dish and rub with butter.

Dress and serve

  1. Slice the shallot thinly and mix with water.

  2. Pour the shallot‑water mixture over the steaks.

  3. Add ketchup.

  4. Serve hot with scraped horseradish and pickles.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Ketchup + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together476 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton steaks
Provide the main meat, whose fat renders and browns on the grill.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish when rubbed over the hot steaks.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sharp onion aroma when sliced thin and steeped in water.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce served over the steaks.
Horseradish
Adds sharp heat that cuts through the richness of the fatty mutton.

The step that matters

Keep the fat from smoking. Fat that drips onto hot coals or metal can flare and smoke, leaving bitter, acrid flavour on the meat. Angling the grill moves the drippings away from the heat, so the steaks cook cleanly.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Horseradishthe original

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