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Cutlets of Mutton with Green Peas

Mutton cutlets coated in breadcrumbs, fried, served with boiled green peas and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cutlets of Mutton with Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim the cutlets and flatten them with a wet cutting board or heavy knife.

  2. Beat the egg, mix in 2 tablespoons of warm butter, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Dip the cutlets in the egg mixture and coat them with breadcrumbs.

Cook the peas

  1. Boil the peas.

  2. Drain the peas.

  3. Toss the peas in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, and pepper until mixed.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the dripping in a skillet.

  2. Fry the cutlets quickly until lightly browned on both sides.

  3. Drain the cutlets.

  4. Arrange the cutlets overlapping on a thin potato border.

  5. Serve the peas in the center.

  6. Pour the hot Espagnole sauce around.

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. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 cutlets
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender and lightly browned.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the egg coating and the peas.
Peas
Provide a sweet, tender vegetable side that complements the rich meat.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets quickly. Breaded cutlets need a hot fat and a short cooking time. Too little heat lets the coating absorb oil and turn greasy, while long cooking dries the meat and can burn the crumbs before the inside is done.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

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