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Mutton, Kebobbed

A dish of mutton loin steaks coated with egg yolk and seasonings, tied, skewered and roasted, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton, Kebobbed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove all fat and skin from the loin of mutton and joint it at every bone.

  2. Mix grated nutmeg, coarse sea salt, black pepper, crumbs, and herbs in a bowl.

  3. Dip the mutton steaks into the egg yolks and sprinkle the seasoning mixture over them.

  4. Reassemble the steaks and tie them together securely.

Roast and baste

  1. Skewer the tied steaks on a small spit and roast over a hot fire.

  2. Place a dish underneath to catch drippings and baste with butter and meat juices.

  3. Once cooked, transfer the mutton to a serving dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In a separate pot, combine the gravy, ketchup, and flour; bring to a boil and skim off excess fat.

  2. Pour the gravy over the mutton before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Egg yolks
Bind the seasoning crumbs to the mutton so they stick during roasting.
Crumbs
Form a crust-like coating that absorbs drippings and browns in the heat.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a richer surface flavour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it simmers, giving it body.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy, deepening its savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Roasting over a hot fire while basting. Strong heat browns the coated surface quickly, while regular basting with butter and juices keeps the lean mutton moist and prevents the crumb coating from scorching before the meat is cooked through.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, bread, egg, butter, ketchup, flour. 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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