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Fried Mutton-chops

Fried mutton chops coated in crackers, served with currant jelly or grape catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fried Mutton-chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim all the fat off the mutton chops.

  2. Dip the chops into the beaten egg.

  3. Coat the chops with pounded crackers.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the chops slowly in hot lard or beef drippings.

  2. Serve with currant jelly or grape catsup.

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. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

  5. Beef + curranttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,464 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Main protein that becomes tender and juicy when fried slowly.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker coating to the meat so it adheres during frying.
Pounded crackers
Form a crisp, browned crust when fried in fat.
Lard or beef drippings
Fat that conducts heat for frying and adds savory flavor and browning.

The step that matters

Fry the chops slowly in hot lard or beef drippings. Moderate heat lets the thick meat cook through while the cracker crust browns gradually, without burning. Fat must be hot enough to crisp the coating but not so hot that the outside scorches before the interior is done.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Pumpkinfits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, beef. 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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