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Noisettes of Mutton

Small slices of mutton seasoned and fried, served with a sherry gravy and olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Noisettes of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the fillet from a well-hung neck of mutton into slices ½ inch thick.

  2. Flatten the slices and trim them into rounds.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, coraline pepper, onion, parsley, and mushrooms.

  4. Place in a well-buttered saucepan and fry over high heat for 5 minutes.

  5. Remove from the pan and mash with the sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, mix ½ pint of good gravy, 1 mushroom, 2 onions, 2 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, and ⅓ cup of sherry.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and reboil.

  3. Add the arrowroot and finally the shredded olives, then serve.

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

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of mutton
Forms the main meat, cooked into tender rounds that carry the dish.
Butter
Fat for frying, adding richness and browning to the outside of the meat.
Good gravy
Liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth and moisture.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce as it simmers and reduces.
Arrowroot
Thickens the sauce to a glossy, lightly set consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the arrowroot. Arrowroot thickens when heated, so the sauce must be simmering and then stirred in carefully; adding it to a cold or boiling-hot liquid can leave lumps or a thin, thick, or cloudy sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, parsley, mushroom, butter, thyme, sherry. 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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