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Mince Cold-Mutton Balls

Mutton meatballs made from minced mutton and sausage meat, seasoned with pepper, salt, herbs, and bound with breadcrumbs and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mince Cold-Mutton Balls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the minced mutton and sausage meat.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced sweet herbs.

  3. Add enough grated bread-crumbs and beaten egg to bind the mixture together.

  4. Mix thoroughly and roll into balls.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry or roast the balls in an oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve as a side dish with tomato sauce or as a garnish.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

Minced mutton
Forms the main body of the meatballs and provides their rich, savoury flavour.
Sausage meat
Adds fat, which keeps the meatballs moist and adds flavour during cooking.
Grated bread-crumbs
Absorb juices and help hold the mixture together for shaping.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture so the balls keep their shape and set when cooked.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly and roll into balls. Binding with egg and bread-crumbs must be evenly mixed so the balls hold together; uneven binding can cause them to crumble or cook unevenly.

“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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