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Mutton Cutlets with Tomato Sauce and Peas

Mutton cutlets served with tomato sauce and peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Cutlets with Tomato Sauce and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Open the tin of roast mutton carefully and turn the meat out onto a board.

  2. Remove the jelly and cut the meat into slices, trimming them to cutlet shape.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly and ½ cup of tomato catsup, and bring to a boil.

  2. Thicken the sauce with 1 tablespoon of flour, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, add the cutlets, and let them heat through.

  4. Serve the cutlets in a dish with the sauce poured over them.

Cook the peas

  1. For the peas, strain them from their liquid and place in a saucepan with boiling water, 2 teaspoons of sugar, salt, and a sprig of mint.

  2. Boil until tender, strain, and toss with a knob of butter before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  4. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + minttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together828 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

Roast mutton
Forms the main body of the cutlets, providing the meat that is sliced and heated through.
Tomato catsup
Gives the sauce its tomato flavour and sweet-tart acidity.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the cutlets instead of running off.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the peas.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be stirred constantly while the sauce boils, otherwise its starch clumps and the sauce turns lumpy or stays thin. Keeping it moving lets the starch swell evenly and thicken smoothly.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, tomato, sugar, butter, pepper, bread. 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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