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Entrees of Mutton

A braised mutton cutlet dish larded with bacon and seasoned with peppercorns, mace, and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Entrees of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into thick cutlets and place them on a dish.

  2. Cut the bacon into narrow strips, about 1 inch long.

  3. Use a larding pin to insert strips of bacon into each cutlet, repeating until each is studded with 8 strips.

  4. Stew the trimmings in a large pan.

Braise

  1. Arrange the cutlets in a circle with the bone ends pointing to the center.

  2. Cover the cutlets with the remaining trimmings.

  3. Garnish with sliced carrots, onion, parsley, and celery.

  4. Season with peppercorns and mace.

  5. Moisten with brandy and enough broth to cover.

  6. Cover with buttered paper and a lid.

  7. Braise gently in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  8. Remove from heat.

Cool and press

  1. Let cool in the liquid.

  2. Carefully take out the cutlets one at a time.

  3. Place them in rows on a large dish.

  4. Press them slightly with another dish to create an even surface.

  5. Let them cool completely.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Mutton cutlets
Provide the main meat that becomes tender during slow braising.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean meat moist during braising.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.
Broth or stock
Supplies the liquid that braises the cutlets and forms their sauce.

The step that matters

Braise gently in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 1.5 hours.. Gentle, low heat with enough liquid slowly breaks down connective tissue in the mutton, making it tender; a hard boil would toughen and dry the meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, onion, clove, parsley, celery, brandy):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, onion, clove, parsley, celery, brandy. 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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