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Mutton Kebobbed

A roasted mutton loin tied with herbs and served in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Mutton Kebobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fat and skin from the loin of mutton and joint it well.

  2. Chop parsley and sweet herbs finely, then mix with the egg yolk and bread crumbs.

  3. Cut the loin into chops and spread the herb mixture over each chop.

  4. Return the chops to their original position and tie with kitchen twine.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the tied loin before a hot fire, basting with fresh butter and its own gravy.

  2. Once cooked, pour hot brown gravy into a serving dish, place the mutton inside, and pour more gravy over it.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Provides the main meat, which is roasted until tender and juicy.
Egg yolk
Binds the herb and bread crumb mixture so it stays on the chops.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the herb coating.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the surface.

The step that matters

Basting during roasting. Basting with butter and gravy keeps the surface from drying out and encourages even browning. Too little basting can leave the meat dry and the coating pale.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, bread, butter. 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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