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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets are seasoned pieces of mutton flattened and cooked on a grill or fried after coating with egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Mutton Cutlets

seven cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Take the best end of a neck of mutton, which will yield seven cutlets.

  2. Saw about four inches off the end of the upper rib bones.

  3. Remove the chine bone.

  4. Trim off the fat.

  5. Cut seven cutlets, each about half an inch thick, ensuring each has a bone.

  6. Flatten the cutlets with a chopper moistened with water to prevent sticking.

  7. Remove gristle from the lean.

  8. Pare away meat and skin from the inside of the bone for shape.

Season and shape

  1. Sprinkle each cutlet with two pinches of salt.

  2. Sprinkle each cutlet with one small pinch of pepper.

  3. Lightly oil the cutlets.

  4. Shape the cutlets with the flat side of a knife.

Cook and coat

  1. Cook on a gridiron over a brisk fire for four minutes on one side.

  2. Cook on a gridiron over a brisk fire for three minutes on the other side.

  3. Egg the cutlets.

  4. Bread-crumb the cutlets.

  5. Fry the cutlets in hot fat.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 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

Neck of mutton
Provides the meat and bone for each cutlet, so the main structure and flavour of the dish.
Egg
Binds the bread-crumbs to the cutlet surface so the coating holds during frying.
Bread-crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Oil
Thin coating on the cutlets that helps prevent sticking and promotes even browning on the gridiron.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the breadcrumb coating absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of forming a crisp, browned crust. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, sealing in juices.

“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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