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To Fry Mutton Steaks

Fried mutton steaks coated in herbs and breadcrumbs, served with crisped parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Fry Mutton Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gridiron

  1. Rub a hot iron gridiron with fresh suet.

  2. Place the mutton steaks on the gridiron.

  3. Turn the steaks frequently to avoid smoking.

  4. Transfer the steaks to a hot dish.

Coat the steaks

  1. Rub the steaks with butter.

  2. Mix parsley, thyme, lemon peel, bread crumbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  3. Beat the steaks.

  4. Rub the steaks with egg yolk.

  5. Coat the steaks with the herb mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the steaks until nicely browned.

  2. Serve with crisped parsley.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 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 steaks
Form the main body of the dish, cooked by frying until browned.
Egg yolk
Binds the herb coating so it adheres to the steaks during frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp, browned coating on the steaks.
Fresh suet
Provides fat that greases the hot gridiron and helps prevent sticking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the steaks and helps the coating brown.

The step that matters

Turn the steaks frequently. Frequent turning on a hot gridiron keeps fat from dripping onto the heat and smoking, and cooks the meat evenly without scorching the surface.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, parsley, thyme, lemon, bread, pepper. 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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