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Mutton, Mince Of, Baked

A baked dish of finely minced cooked mutton mixed with breadcrumbs, parsley, shallot, egg, mushroom ketchup, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton, Mince Of, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a plain mold or round cake tin with butter or fat and lightly cover it with browned breadcrumbs.

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the minced mutton, white breadcrumbs, parsley, and shallot.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, then add the egg, mushroom ketchup, and enough gravy to moisten it slightly.

  3. Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin and bake gently for 1 to 1½ hours.

Serve

  1. Carefully unmold and serve with good gravy.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked mutton
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives its meaty flavor and body.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when unmolded and sliced.
White breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and soften the texture so the mince stays tender rather than dense.
Gravy
Moistens the mixture so it does not dry out during gentle baking.
Shallot
Adds mild aromatic sweetness that rounds out the savory meat flavor.

The step that matters

Baking gently. High heat or long cooking can toughen and dry the egg-bound meat, so a gentle oven and moisture from the gravy keep the mince tender and juicy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, shallot, egg, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, 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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