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Neck of Mutton

A boiled mutton neck coated with breadcrumb and herb mixture, then browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Neck of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the neck of mutton slowly until nearly done.

  2. Moisten the bread crumbs and chopped herbs with the egg yolk.

Cover and brown

  1. Cover the mutton with the breadcrumb mixture.

  2. Place the mutton in a Dutch oven before the fire.

  3. Serve when nicely browned.

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. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow boiling before browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust over the meat as they toast in front of the fire.
Egg yolk
Binds the crumbs and herbs together so the coating holds on the meat.
Sweet herbs
Add aroma and flavour to the crumb coating.

The step that matters

Serve when nicely browned. The crust needs enough heat to toast the moistened crumbs without burning them. Browning depends on sugars and proteins reacting at high surface heat, so watch the colour rather than the clock.

“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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