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Mutton, Neck Of, Browned

A browned neck of mutton cooked with stock, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with a brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton, Neck Of, Browned

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Saw the rib bones across.

  2. Remove the short ends.

  3. Fold the flap under.

  4. Bind securely.

  5. Place the meat in a stewpan with boiling stock to barely cover it.

  6. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  7. Drain the meat well.

Coat and bake

  1. Beat the egg.

  2. Mix in the parsley, herbs, and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.

  3. Coat the meat thickly with the egg mixture.

  4. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until well browned.

  6. Baste frequently with hot fat.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a separate stewpan.

  2. Add the flour.

  3. Cook slowly until well browned.

  4. Add 1 pint of boiling stock.

  5. Stir until boiling.

  6. Season to taste.

  7. Simmer gently until required.

  8. Serve separately.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 neck
Provides the meat that is simmered, then coated and browned as the main dish.
Eggs
Bind the parsley and herbs and help the breadcrumb coating adhere to the meat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust over the coated meat in the oven.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a sauce as it cooks and browns.

The step that matters

Cook the flour and butter until well browned. Cooking the roux slowly until browned develops colour and a nutty flavour. Adding stock too early or cooking too fast can leave the sauce pale, lumpy, or floury-tasting.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

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