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Minced Mutton Cakes

A dish of minced mutton formed into cakes, coated in flour, egg, breadcrumbs, and fried.

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 ↓

Minced Mutton Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gravy

  1. Stew the bones and trimmings until the gravy is strong enough to jelly when cold.

  2. If needed, dissolve 1 teaspoon of gelatine in the gravy.

Shape the meatballs

  1. Cut the lean meat from the shoulder of mutton and mince it.

  2. Mix the minced meat with enough gravy to bind it together, about 4 tablespoons for 1 pound of mince.

  3. Spread the mixture on a dish and let it cool and stiffen.

  4. Form the mixture into cakes about 2 inches in diameter.

Coat and fry

  1. Lightly dust the cakes with flour, then brush with beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Let the cakes sit for 1 hour, then repeat the egg and breadcrumb coating.

  3. Fry the cakes in boiling fat for 6 to 8 minutes until browned.

  4. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with tomato sauce in the center.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Lean mutton
Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the cakes.
Gravy
Adds moisture and, when strongly jellied, helps the mince bind and hold its shape.
Egg
Forms a coating that helps the bread crumbs adhere and brown during frying.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the cakes cool and stiffen before shaping and coating. Cooling lets the gravy gel and firm the mince, so the cakes hold their shape and do not fall apart when coated and fried.

“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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