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Mutton Cutlets with Green Peas

Mutton cutlets served with mashed potatoes, green peas, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,016 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets with Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Cut the mutton into cutlets, trim, flatten, and pare them.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mix breadcrumbs with chopped ham.

  4. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg and cover with breadcrumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a sauté pan and cook the cutlets until golden brown.

  2. Drain the cutlets and arrange them in a border on a bed of mashed potatoes and peas.

  3. Fill the center with cooked green peas and pour gravy or sauce around the base.

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. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Best end of neck of mutton
Forms the main meat of the cutlets, providing the dish's core flavour and substance.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that protects the meat during frying.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs adhere to the cutlets.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning and rich flavour.
Finely chopped lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the breadcrumb coating.
Mashed potatoes
Provide a soft, starchy base that supports the cutlets when serving.

The step that matters

Cook the cutlets until golden brown. Frying in hot butter browns the breadcrumb crust through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavour and colour. Cooking too gently leaves the crust pale and greasy, while too much heat can burn it before the meat is cooked through.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, ham, egg, butter, potato, sauce):

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, ham, egg, butter, potato, sauce. 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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