Skip to main content
Main

Collops of Cold Mutton

Thin slices of mutton seasoned with mace, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallots, simmered in gravy, lemon juice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Collops of Cold Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut thin collops from a loin of mutton and remove the sinew.

  2. Sprinkle the collops with mace, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, and shallots.

Cook and serve

  1. Place them in a saucepan with gravy, lemon juice, and butter rolled in flour.

  2. Simmer gently for five minutes.

  3. Serve immediately on a dish.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton collops
Thin slices of meat that cook quickly and stay tender when simmered briefly.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce while butter adds richness.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid and savoury body of the sauce that coats the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for five minutes. Boiling vigorously toughens the proteins in thin meat and can cause the flour-thickened sauce to break or turn lumpy. A gentle simmer keeps the mutton tender and the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

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

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes