Name: Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way
Ingredients: Mutton chops; 1 shallot or onion, sliced; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 2 bay leaves; Pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Force-meat (meat mixture); Butter, for serving

Why it works: Shallot and parsley 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 Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the mutton chops and half-fry them with the sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

Lay a piece of force-meat on a piece of white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper, leaving a hole for the end of the bones.
Broil the wrapped chops over a gentle fire.
Serve with sauce Hobart or a little 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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together484 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops: Main meat, which turns tender and juicy with gentle heat and its own fat.
Shallot or onion: Adds a savory, aromatic base that flavors the meat during frying.
Bay leaves: Contribute a subtle, aromatic herbal flavor to the meat.
Parsley: Adds a fresh, green herbal note that brightens the richer meat.

The step that matters

Broiling the wrapped chops over a gentle fire. Gentle, moderate heat lets the fat render and the meat cook through while the paper protects the surface from scorching. Fierce heat would char the paper and dry the meat before the centre is tender.

Swap the shallot

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

Carrotfits about as well
Shallotthe original
Potatofits about as well
Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, pepper, meat, 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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Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way