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Mutton Cutlets a LA Maintenon

Breadcrumbed mutton cutlets served with poivrade sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a LA Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Remove the underbone from the loin of mutton and cut it into chops.

  2. Beat the chops and trim them neatly.

Season and cook

  1. Mix the butter, parsley, thyme, eschalots, pepper, salt, mace, and lemon juice, then add to the chops.

  2. Cook the chops until nearly done, then place them on a dish and pour the cooking liquid over them.

Wrap and broil

  1. Once nearly cool, breadcrumb the chops and wrap them separately in oiled white paper.

  2. Broil the wrapped chops over a slow fire.

  3. Serve with hot poivrade sauce.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin
Forms the chops, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the chops stay tender during cooking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps cut the richness of the fat.
Eschalots
Contribute mild onion-like aroma and savoury flavour to the herb butter.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the chops.

The step that matters

Cook the chops until nearly done before cooling and wrapping. Meat continues to cook from residual heat, so stopping at nearly done lets the chops finish gently during broiling without drying out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, parsley, thyme, pepper, lemon. 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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