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Mutton Cutlets or Chops, with Soubise, or Onion Sauce

Mutton cutlets braised with carrots, parsley, and onions, finished with a reduced onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Mutton Cutlets or Chops, with Soubise, or Onion Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into individual chops without flattening them, trimming some of the flat bone at the ends.

Braise

  1. Place the chops and parings into a stewpan with carrots, parsley, green onions, salt, and a small amount of spice.

  2. Add 4-5 tablespoons of broth to braise the mixture.

  3. Once cooked, drain the chops and let them cool.

Glaze and serve

  1. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and reduce it to a glaze.

  2. Trim the chops nicely and coat them with the glaze.

  3. Arrange the chops on a plate and pour the soubise or onion sauce into 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Provides the meat for the chops, which become tender through slow braising.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the braise and the onion sauce.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid that becomes the glaze.
Broth
Adds moisture to braise the chops and builds flavour in the reduced glaze.

The step that matters

Reducing the strained cooking liquid to a glaze. If reduced too little the glaze stays thin and runs off the chops; if reduced too far it turns sticky and salty. Gentle reduction concentrates flavour and gelatin, giving a glossy coating.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, parsley. 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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