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Mutton Patties

A patty made from minced mutton, mashed potatoes, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes, then mix in the butter.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff paste with the egg.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the mutton finely and add the seasoning.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the paste as thin as possible and cut it into squares.

  2. Place as much minced mutton as possible into each square, then roll them up.

  3. Fry the patties in lard until they are a bright brown.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mutton
Forms the savoury filling and provides the meaty flavour of the patties.
Potatoes
Make up the bulk of the pastry, giving it a soft, workable texture.
Egg
Binds the flour and potato mixture into a stiff, cohesive paste.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the paste and improving its flavour.
Flour
Gives the paste enough structure to be rolled out thinly and wrapped around the filling.

The step that matters

Fry the patties until a bright brown. Frying in hot lard browns the paste through the Maillard reaction, giving colour and flavour. Too little heat leaves them pale and greasy, while too much can scorch the outside before the filling heats through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, egg, butter, pepper, 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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