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Mutton Chops, Stewed in Their Own Gravy

Mutton chops stewed in their own gravy with pepper, flour, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Chops, Stewed in Their Own Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the fat from the mutton chops.

  2. Dip each chop quickly in cold water.

  3. Sprinkle pepper lightly on each chop.

  4. Dredge both sides of the chops with flour.

Stew the chops

  1. In a thick iron saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of water or broth for each chop.

  2. Lay the chops in a single layer and cover with a lid.

  3. Simmer gently for 1.5 hours, turning them halfway through.

Finish

  1. Just before serving, add 1 teaspoon of chopped parsley to the gravy.

  2. If the gravy dries up, add a little more water.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + parsleytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,915 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; slow simmering softens its connective tissue into tender bites.
Flour
Coats the chops and helps thicken the gravy as it cooks.
Water or broth
Forms the gravy and keeps the chops moist while they stew.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. Keeping the heat low and the pan covered lets the chops cook in their own juices. Fast boiling toughens the meat and can dry out or scorch the gravy, while gentle heat lets connective tissue soften.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, 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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