Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets in the Fortufjriese Way
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chops
Cut the mutton chops.
Half-fry the chops with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.
Season the chops with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Wrap and cook
Lay a piece of forcemeat on white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper up, leaving a hole for the end of the bones.
Broil the wrapped chop on a gentle fire.
Serve with sauce Robert or a little gravy.
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.
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Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Form the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
- Forcemeat
- Wraps the chop, adding a moist, savoury coating as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps browning and flavour when the chops are fried.
The step that matters
Wrapping the chop in forcemeat and paper. The paper must be twisted closed with a gap left for the bone ends, so the wrapped chop holds its shape and cooks evenly without the paper splitting or burning.
Swap the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, pepper, butter):
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotthe original
- Potatofits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, pepper, 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.
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