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, with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Trim off all fat, pith, and gristle from the mutton cutlets, and bare the bone about 1.5 inches.
Dip each cutlet in oiled butter and coat both sides with fine bread crumbs.
Fry the cutlets slowly in plenty of lard until pale brown, about 20 minutes.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, heat the tomato sauce.
Mix the baked flour with the fresh butter, then stir the mixture into the sauce and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the vinegar to the sauce.
Serve
Pour the sauce into the center of a serving dish and arrange the cutlets around it.
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 cutlets
- Provide the meat, which is cooked until the crumb crust is browned and the meat is tender.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden-brown coating that protects the meat during frying.
- Baked flour
- Thickens the tomato sauce when cooked with butter into a smooth mixture.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the sauce.
- Tomato sauce
- Forms the base of the sauce, providing its main flavor and body.
- Vinegar
- Adds a light acidity that brightens the flavor of the tomato sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the cutlets slowly in plenty of lard. Slow frying in ample fat cooks the meat through while the crumb coating browns evenly without burning. Fast, high heat would scorch the crumbs before the centre of the cutlet is cooked.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, bread, sauce, flour, vinegar):
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, bread, sauce, flour, vinegar. 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.