Why it works: Butter and bread 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 cutlets
Trim the cutlets and saw off the chine bone.
Remove all fat and bare the bone about an inch from the top.
Coat the cutlets
Pass the bread crumbs through a sieve and mix in a little flour.
Beat the egg yolk and add a little salt and pepper.
Dip each cutlet in the egg yolk, then coat with the bread crumbs.
Fry
In a frying pan, heat the butter until it boils, then skim off impurities.
Arrange the cutlets in the pan and fry for seven minutes.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Forms the main body of the cutlet and provides the meat that cooks through in the pan.
- Butter
- Conducts heat into the coating and adds richness and browning to the fried crust.
- Egg yolk
- Acts as a binder that makes the bread crumbs stick to the cutlet.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the meat while it fries.
The step that matters
Skimming the heated butter. Butter contains water and milk solids; skimming off the impurities as it boils leaves a clearer fat that fries the coating evenly without scorching. Removing fat from the meat also keeps the crust from greasing and sticking.
“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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