Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets coated in breadcrumbs and fried, served with a mushroom and brown gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim excess fat from the mutton.

  2. Dip each cutlet in clarified butter.

  3. Cover the cutlets with breadcrumbs seasoned with pepper and salt.

  4. Broil the cutlets just long enough to heat them through.

  5. Dip the cutlets again in breadcrumbs.

  6. Finish cooking the cutlets.

  7. Lay the cutlets on white paper before the fire.

  8. Press the cutlets slightly with another paper.

Make the sauce

  1. Stew the mushrooms, parsley, bay leaf, and shallot in brown gravy.

  2. Thicken the sauce with flour.

  3. Remove the bay leaf from the sauce.

  4. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the cutlet and provides the rich, meaty flavor.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the meat and adds texture.
Butter
Carries seasoning onto the surface and helps the breadcrumbs brown.
Brown gravy
Provides the liquid base of the sauce and its savory depth.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and body to the sauce as they stew.

The step that matters

Dip the cutlets again in breadcrumbs.. A second breadcrumb coat helps build a thicker, sturdier crust. Without even coverage, the coating can break or fall away during the final cooking.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper, mushroom, shallot, flour):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, mushroom, shallot, flour. 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.

More mutton cutlets recipes

Braised 15Portuguese 12Broiled 10Breaded 9Cold 6with Green Peas 6 See all 120 →

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes