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Minced Cold-Mutton Balls

A dish of minced mutton and sausage meat formed into balls, seasoned and baked or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Minced Cold-Mutton Balls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine minced mutton and sausage meat.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced sweet herbs.

  3. Add grated bread crumbs and beaten egg to bind the mixture. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Shape and cook

  1. Roll the mixture into balls.

  2. Fry or roast the balls in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Serve as a side dish with tomato sauce or as a garnish.

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 + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced mutton
Provides the main meaty body and rich flavor of the meatballs.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and extra savory flavor that keeps the meatballs moist.
Grated bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the meatballs hold their shape and stay tender.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture together so the meatballs hold their shape while cooking.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly until well combined. Even distribution of the egg, bread crumbs and seasoning keeps the balls bound and evenly seasoned. Overworking the meat can make it dense and tough, so mix only until uniform.

“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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