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Fried Mutton Chops

A baked and fried mutton chop dish served with a mushroom ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Mutton Chops

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the mutton chops.

  2. Dust the chops with flour.

  3. Heat a frying pan and lightly brown the chops on both sides.

  4. Place the chops in a pie dish and cover them with stock or water.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, turning occasionally.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Dip the chops in flour.

  2. Fry the chops gently in butter or dripping until cooked, about 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the chops and arrange them on a serving dish.

  4. Mix 2 teaspoons of flour with ½ cup of the gravy from the dish.

  5. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir until it boils and thickens.

  6. Add mushroom ketchup, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  7. Strain the sauce over the chops and serve hot.

Optional coating

  1. Roll the chops in egg and bread crumbs or dip in frying batter before cooking.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Main meat that is browned, baked tender and then fried.
Flour
Dusts the chops and thickens the gravy sauce for body.
Butter or dripping
Fat for frying that browns the chop surfaces and adds flavour.
Gravy
Liquid base of the sauce that carries flavour over the chops.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the chops gently. Gentle heat cooks the meat through while the flour coating browns evenly without burning. Strong heat scorches the coating before the centre is cooked.

“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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