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Cut Some Collops From a Leg of Mutton

Thin slices of mutton cooked in butter, seasoned, thickened with flour, served with gravy and fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cut Some Collops From a Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the mutton into thin collops, removing all fat and sinews.

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

Cook

  1. Heat butter in a stew-pan.

  2. Add the collops and stir until three-quarters cooked.

  3. Add gravy and lemon juice.

  4. Thicken with flour and butter.

  5. Simmer for 4-5 minutes until done.

Serve

  1. Serve with gravy and fried bread pieces on top.

  2. Garnish with pickles.

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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender when sliced thin and cooked briefly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the seasoning flavours and helping the collops brown lightly.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury depth, forming the sauce the collops simmer in.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce that coats the meat.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Simmer for 4-5 minutes until done. Thin mutton cooks quickly, and overcooking makes slices tough and dry. Stop as soon as they are just done, while the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  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, butter, lemon. 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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