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Mutton Kebobbed

A roasted mutton loin cut into steaks, seasoned, coated with egg yolk and breadcrumbs, served with a ketchup‑floured gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 Kebobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove all fat and skin from the loin of mutton.

  2. Joint the meat at every bone.

  3. Mix grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and herbs.

  4. Dip the steaks in egg yolks.

  5. Sprinkle the nutmeg mixture over the steaks.

  6. Reassemble the steaks.

  7. Tie the steaks together.

  8. Secure the steaks on a small spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast over a quick fire, basting with butter and meat juices.

  2. Prepare half a pint of gravy and mix in 2 teaspoons of ketchup and 1 teaspoon of flour. Boil the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy over the mutton 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Provides the meat that is cut into steaks and roasted.
Egg yolks
Bind the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the steaks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating with the herbs and nutmeg.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown while roasting.

The step that matters

Roast over a quick fire, basting with butter and meat juices. A quick, hot fire browns the coating and sears the surface, while regular basting keeps the meat moist and prevents the crumbs from drying or burning.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

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