Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the fat from the loin chops and cut the meat from the bones.
Divide each chop into two pieces.
Fry the cutlets
Beat the egg and coat the chops, then cover with bread crumbs.
Fry the breaded chops in a little butter until golden brown.
Make the gravy
Use the bones and an onion to make gravy.
Thicken the gravy with a cooked potato, tomato sauce, or flour, or serve it plain.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,798 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Loin chops of mutton
- Provides the meat that forms the cutlet itself.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating so it sticks to the chops.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp coating that browns when fried.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and helps the coating turn golden brown.
- Onion
- Adds savoury flavour to the gravy made from the bones.
The step that matters
Frying the breaded chops in butter. Butter browns at a moderate heat and can burn before the meat cooks through. Keeping the heat moderate and the butter thin lets the crumb turn golden while the mutton cooks inside.
Swap the potato
The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, bread, onion, tomato, sauce):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, bread, onion, tomato, sauce. 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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