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Mutton Chops À LA Poêle

Mutton chops cooked in butter, then simmered with stock, shallots, and seasonings, finished with egg yolks and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mutton Chops À LA Poêle

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chops

  1. Heat a stewpan over low heat and add the butter.

  2. Add the mutton chops and cook, turning frequently, until done.

  3. Remove the chops and drain them, leaving about ½ cup of fat in the stewpan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the stock, shallots, salt, and pepper to the fat and bring to a boil.

  2. Return the chops to the stewpan and add the egg yolks.

  3. Thicken the sauce over low heat, then stir in the vinegar and nutmeg before serving.

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 + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin chops
Provides the meat that is seared in butter and fat until cooked through.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the sauce as they gently set over low heat.
Shallots
Add mild aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the stock-based sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fat and yolk sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce over low heat. Egg yolks thicken by gently coagulating proteins; if the heat is too high or the sauce boils after the yolks go in, they can scramble and turn grainy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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