Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Remove the backbone and upper bones from the neck of mutton, leaving cutlets about 4 to 5 inches long.
Trim off all fat and sinew from the meat.
Flatten the cutlets using a meat mallet or a heavy object.
Cook
Broil the cutlets on a grill over a clear fire for 5 to 10 minutes, turning each minute.
Alternatively, dip the cutlets in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs mixed with pepper and salt.
Smooth the cutlets with a knife, then fry in melted butter until golden brown.
Drain on paper and serve in a circle with peas or mashed potatoes in the center.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + peastop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,331 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the meat during frying.
- Butter
- Fat for frying that promotes browning and adds rich flavor.
The step that matters
Fry in melted butter until golden brown. Butter browns quickly at high heat and can burn before the coating and meat are cooked, so keep the heat controlled and watch the color closely.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, bread, pepper, butter):
- Peasthe original
- Lima beansfits about as well
- Walnutfits less well
- Beansfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, bread, pepper, butter. 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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